4.

Kamala and Amala

The story of two young girls, Kamala and Amala, is one of the most famous cases of feral children.
Kamala was 8 years old and Amala was said to be 1 when they were found in 1920. Both girls had
spent most of their lives abandoned and alone. The two were found in Midnapore, India in a wolves
den. Despite being found together, those who investigated the case believe that the two were not
sisters but were simply abandoned around the same time or taken by wolves. The girls were found
after stories spread throughout the village of two ghostly spirit figures that were often seen with
the wolves that lived in the Bengal jungle. The local villagers were scared of the said spirits and called
in a Reverend, Joseph Singh, to get to the bottom of it all. To see what was really going on, Singh hid
in a tree above the cave and waited. When he saw the wolves exit the cave he waited and then saw
two hunched over figures peek their heads out of the cave. He wrote down what he saw, describing
them as hideous looking with foot and body like a human being. He said that the girls ran on all
fours and had no real traits of being human.
Singh eventually captured the girls, though he had no experience in rehabilitating them. The girls
slept curled together, growled, tore off their clothing, ate nothing but raw meat, howled, and were
physically deformed. The tendons and joints in their arms and legs shortened, making it impossible
to walk upright. The two also had no interest in interacting with humans. Some say that their senses
were impeccable, especially when it came to hearing and seeing, but even their sense of smell was
sharp. Amala eventually died due to a sickness, which then caused Kamala to go into a long-stage of
mourning. Singh thought she would die but she did not and he started a rehabilitation program to
help heal her- she eventually learned to walk upright and say a few words. She died of kidney failure
in 1929.

3. Victor of Aveyron

Victor the Wild Boy of Aveyron is another name on the list that you may sound familiar. Some say
that he could be the first documented cause of autism, but he is definitely a well known case of a
child that was left alone in the wild. At the end of the 18 th century, several people saw Victor
wandering in the Saint Sernin sur Rance woods, which is located in southern France. Victor was
captured a first time and somehow escaped. It wasnt until January 8, 1800 that he was caught again
after coming out of the woods on his own, though he was spotted several times in 1798 and 1799. At
this time he was said to be about 12 years old. His body was covered in scars and he was unable to
speak a word. He was taken back to town where he was generally accepted, though once the news
spread, many came forward wanting to examine him.
A biology professor, Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, decided to examine Victor, taking off his clothes and
putting him outside in the snow. Victor began to run around in the snow, showing no ill-effects of the
cold temperature on his bare skin. It is said that he lived in the wild for about 7 years, so it is no
surprise that his body was able to take such extreme weather. Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard then
took over and decided to try to teach the boy, though he soon became frustrated at his lack of
progress. Though he was probably born with the ability to talk and hear, he never did so properly
after being left in the wild. He was eventually taken to the Paris Institution des Sourds-Muets where
he lived with Mme Gurin and died at the age of 40.

2. Oxana Malaya
In 1991, Oxana Malaya, who lives in Ukraine, was found and considered to be a feral child. At the
time she was found, she was only 8 years old and is said to have lived amongst dogssince she was 3
years old. She was kept in a kennel in the backyard of her home. Because of this she picked up
common behaviors that dogs exhibit: barking, growling, and even protecting the pack, so to speak.
She even walked on four legs as a dog does and sniffed out her food before she ate it. When
authorities came to rescue Oxana, the other dogs growled and attempted to attack them while
Oxana barked and growled as well. Because of her lack of human interaction, Oxana had no
vocabulary except the words yes and no.

She was of course put through intensive therapy to attempt to help her to learn necessary social and
verbal skills. She was able to learn how to speak, though therapists say she has deep issues with
attempting to communicate and express herself emotionally. Today she lives at the Baraboy Clinic in
Odessa and spends a lot of her time tending to the cows at the hospitals farm, though she has
expressed that she really feels best when she is around dogs.

1. Genie (Wild Child)

If you ever take a Psychology class or get into a conversation about feral children, Genies name will
probably come up. For 13 years she was locked inside a room and strapped to her potty chair, other
times she was bound in a sleeping bag and put inside a crib. Her father, the one behind the abuse,
would hit her with a stick if she ever spoke and he would bark and growl at her to keep her quiet. He

also forbade his other children and even his wife from speaking. Because of this, Genie had a very
small vocabulary, consisting of about 20 words. The phrases she did know included stop it and no
more. She was discovered in 1970 and today she is considered to be one of the worst cases of social
isolation known. She was often thought to be autistic until doctors found out she was really 13 and
was a victim of abuse.

She was taken to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles where she was treated for years. After some
treatment, she was able to answer questions in one-word answers and she learned how to dress
herself. However, she still held onto her learned behavior, including a bunny walk where she held
her hands up in front of her as if they were paws. She also scratched and even clawed at things.

Though she was moved around a lot, she found home with her therapist David Rigler for 4 years,
who worked with her daily. He and his family taught Genie sign language as well as ways to express
herself without speaking; drawing was a method. Genie then went to live with her mother, and then
abusive foster parents, which then caused her to become mute again and afraid to speak. Today she
is living somewhere in Southern California.