9 Children Who Were Raised by Animals

By Bryan Nelson, Mother Nature Network

Legend has it that Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome, were abandoned as children and had to be suckled by a wolf until they were discovered by a wandering shepherd. Eventually they founded the great city on Palatine Hill, the very place where they had been cared for by the wolf. This is likely just a myth, but history abounds with real stories of children who really were raised by animals.

Although reality for these feral children is rarely so romanticized as it was for Romulus and Remus (feral children are often hampered with cognitive and behavioral disabilities), occasionally their stories can also be a testament to the human will to survive, and of the tender maternal instinct of other animals.