Feral children, children who have lived from a young age without human contact, appear in mythological and fictional works, usually raised by animals. Often their dual heritage is a benefit to them, protecting them from the corrupting influence of human society, such as in Tarzan's case. It may also permit the development and expression of their own animal nature, for example Enkidu, or providing access to the wisdom and lore by which animals survive in the wild, for example Mowgli.
In most tales, the child is lost or abandoned. They are then found and adopted in a chance encounter with a sympathetic wild animal. In some stories, the child chooses to abandon human society or refuses to enter society altogether. The child usually returns to civilization, but may decide to return again to life in the wild. In some cases, they find themselves trapped between worlds, unable to enter entirely into either human society or animal society.
In mythology, folklore, and ancient literature Enkidu, raised by unspecified beasts, becomes the friend of the hero Gilgamesh in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In Greek mythology, Atalanta was raised by a female bear after her father abandoned her in a forest until the day she was found by kindly hunters. Romulus and Remus, legendary founders of Rome, were suckled by a female wolf. The Iranian Shahnameh "The Book of Kings / The king of books", introduces Zaal, the mythical hero of Iran, raised by Simurgh, a very large and wise bird. In Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, Hayy is raised by a gazelle on a desert island and becomes an autodidactic philosopher. In Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus, Kamil is also raised by animals on a deserted island, and becomes an autodidactic scientist and theologian. In Mongolian Oirat and Kalmyk mythology, the hero Jangar is taught to roar by a tiger, taught to hunt by an eagle, taught to run by antelope, suckled by female wolves, and fed fruit by deer. In a Polish fairy tale, Waligóra and Wyrwidąb were two warrior and dragonslayer brothers, who were brought up in the woods by a wolf and a bear. According to American folklore, Pecos Bill was raised by coyotes.
In modern prose In 1879, Albert Robida created Saturnin Farandoul, a child raised by orangutans who becomes king of the apes. H. Rider Haggard's 1889 novelette "Allan's Wife" features the antagonist Hendrika, a white Boer child who was stolen and raised by baboons. She is later rescued and "civilized" by an English family, but she retains baboon-like behavior and the ability to communicate with baboons. The protagonist of Rudyard Kipling's 1894 short story collection The Jungle Book, Mowgli, is raised by wolves and becomes the ruler of the jungle. Peter Pan, created by J. M. Barrie in 1902, is a boy raised by birds and fairies who fled to the magical Neverland and refused to grow up. The Blue Lagoon, created by H. de Vere Stacpoole in (1908) tells the story of two English children, a boy and a girl, stranded on a deserted tropical island in Polynesia. The Garden of God (1923), a sequel to The Blue Lagoon, features a new British child couple, descendants of the couple from the previous book generated by incest, who live a new adventure on the same Polynesian island. Tarzan, of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes (1912), is an orphan raised by apes. The German trilogy Die Höhlenkinder (1918-1920) by Alois Theodor Sonnleitner is about two children who grow up in a hidden area cut off from the outside world without adults, after they had to flee because their grandmother was accused to be a witch. Later they have a son who finds his way back. Shasta of the Wolves (1919) by Olaf Baker, in which a Native American boy is raised by a pack of Cascade mountain wolves in the Pacific Northwest. Jungle Born (1924) by John Eyton, in which a boy raised by rhesus macaques in northern India inadvertently saves a teenage girl from her abusive father. The House Without Windows & Eepersip's Life There (1927) by Barbara Newhall Follett, in which Eepersip runs away from home to live in idyllic Nature (successively, a meadow, the sea, and, finally, the mountains). White Deer (1947) by Vladimir Nazor, in which a six-year-old girl named Anka is lost in the forest while herding a flock of geese. She is adopted by deer and soon befriends most animals in the forest. Her main antagonist is a wolf, while her closest ally is a white deer. After growing up she becomes a powerful forest-warrior who helps both animals and humans living in the forest. In Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land, Valentine Michael Smith is a human raised by Martians on Mars, as he returns to Earth in early adulthood. The novel explores his interaction with — and eventual transformation of — human culture. In Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's 1971 novel The Little One (also known as Space Mowgli), a human from Earth, Piere Semyonov, has been raised by an alien non-humanoid civilization after his parents' spaceship crashed onto an uncharted planet. After his discovery by Terran scientists, several attempts to integrate him back to human society were undertaken, but all were in vain. The theme of young adolescent runaways seeking shelter with wild animals and learning their ways is seen in novels such as the Newbery Medal-winning novel Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (1972). Philip José Farmer's anthology Mother Was A Lovely Beast: A Feral Man Anthology, Fiction And Fact About Humans Raised By Animals (1974) collects several stories of fictional feral children. Jane Yolen's Passager (1996), the first of the Young Merlin trilogy of short novels, depicts a slightly more realistic view of such childhood. Abandoned in a Welsh forest at the age of seven years, the boy who will become Merlin lives in the forest for a year nearly as well as its natives, until a falconer who is used to domesticating animals captures him and begins the long and difficult task of educating him in human behavior. In Karen Hesse's The Music of Dolphins (1996), a young girl called Mila is found after having been raised by dolphins for over a decade. In the book, Mila is taken to a clinic with other undomesticated human young, none of whom adapt to mainstream humanity as easily as she does. At the end of the book, Mila returns to the dolphin pod, showing her rejection of human society. In the "Firekeeper Saga" starting with Through Wolf's Eyes (2001) by author Jane Lindskold, the family of a young girl named Firekeeper and her colony are killed by a fire, and she is the only survivor. She is then taken in by the "Royal Wolves" who speak their own language with gestures and signals. Because Firekeeper had already learned a human language before going to live with the wolves, she was able to return to human society and became a valuable asset to the royalty, but she found that humans were not as noble as the wolves she loved as family. Wild Angel (2001) by Pat Murphy tells the story of a young girl raised by wolves from the age of four in gold-rush-era California. World War Z by Max Brooks contain many references to feral children - in this case, children who were separated from normal humanity at some point during the zombie war, and were forced to live in the wild, contending not just with the problems of survival but also the hazard posed by the walking dead. The novel suggests they formed a kind of rudimentary social or "pack" structure with basic tool-using abilities, and in most cases were capable of being slowly rehabilitated. In the 2006 book Dogboy by Victor Kelleher, a young boy is abandoned at birth by his mother and is raised by a half domestic dog in a litter of puppies. He is later brought back to a nearby human settlement by the dog, searching for a home with her owner once again, and her only surviving pup but is rejected as an abomination. Camilla Way's 2008 novel Little Bird concerns a girl kidnapped as a toddler by a mute and held captive until the age of twelve. In 2009 Eva Hornung's novel Dogboy, set in Moscow, tells the story of two feral children who live with a pack of dogs. One of the children was abandoned at the age of 4 and the other was brought to the lair as a baby by the dominant female in the pack. The children eventually come under the notice of two scientists working in a centre that rehabilitates abandoned children. The Dictator's Moustaches, a 2009 Italian novel by Anna Russo, concerns an abandoned baby rescued and brought up by dogs. Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah concerns a young girl who appears out of the forest, with no information as to her origins. She is called "wolf girl"; she is cared for and eventually loved by fallen psychologist Julia. In Victor Robert Lee's 2013 novel Performance Anomalies, protagonist Cono 7Q becomes an orphan as a young boy in northeast Brazil, surviving alone in the forest by hunting small animals.
In comics "The Wild Wonders" in the 1970s British comic book series Valiant are two boys lost on a Scottish island and raised in a normal environment, developing their own language. Returned to human civilization at about a decade old, they become superb athletes and enjoy many comic adventures. In "Fishboy", written by Scott Goodall, (1968 - 1975 in Buster), the hero of the title was abandoned on a remote island as a baby, implausibly learned how to breathe underwater and to communicate with aquatic fauna, and grew webbed fingers and toes. Goodall also created "Kid Chameleon" (1970–1972) in Cor!! Raised by reptiles in the Kalahari Desert after the murder of his parents, Kid Chameleon wears a suit of lizard scales that can change color to camouflage him like his namesake the chameleon. The French comic book (bande dessinée) Pyrénée (1998), by Regis Loisel and Philippe Sternis, features a girl who is raised by a bear and taught wisdom by a blind old eagle in the French Pyrenees, the bear having named her after the mountains without the "s". This story has won critical acclaim and has been translated into German and Dutch, but has also drawn some criticism over the girl's nudity. Little Dee is a webcomic where a prevocal human who was lost in a forest is adopted by a bear, dog, and vulture. The strip contains purely fantastic elements (the characters live in a cave but occasionally fly planes or cook food) and focuses more on the natives and their issues of handling a human. In DC Comics' Elseworlds story Superman: The Feral Man of Steel (1994), Kal-El (Clark Kent) is raised by wolves in 19th century India, in an homage to The Jungle Book, until he is discovered by an expedition led by Lex Luthor and Lois Lane and brought back to Britain. In the Marvel Comics universe, a Tarzan-inspired character Ka-Zar is raised by a Smilodon named Zabu in the Savage Land, a vast tropical jungle hidden from the world in the depths of Antarctica. He goes on to have many adventures including features in the X-Men series, where he also has some encounters with Spider-Man. The Quality Comics hero Black Condor, was a boy raised in Mongolia by highly intelligent condors, gains the improbable power of flight and later becomes a superhero. Secret Origins #21 revealed that Condor's flight ability was due to a radioactive meteorite near the condors' nest. Holyoke Publishing's hero Cat-Man was orphaned at a young age and raised by Burmese tigers. He adapted to life in the wild by developing super-strength, enhanced vision, and other talents which served him well when he returned to the US and became a superhero. The Hexagon Comics hero Zembla was a boy raised by lions. Trolls de Troy features a human girl named Waha, who was accidentally raised by Trolls from infancy. In the Japanese manga Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Inosuke Hashibara was raised by wild boars, wearing the hide of his boar mother after her death.