On this wild and woolly installment, Tom and Jenny talk about the fascinating phenomena of feral children…that is, children raised without any human interaction, sometimes brought up in the wild by animals. Though many of their cases are tragic, their existence is an interesting look into the development of human language and the process of enculturation. From Peter the Wild Boy to Victor of Aveyron, who were found in the forest behaving like animals; to Oxana Malaya and Ivan Mishukov, reportedly both separately raised by packs of dogs; to Marina Chapman, who allegedly spent five years as a child living with a troop of monkeys; to Genie Wiley, neglected and abused by her father so severely that she was never able to develop normally, we delve into many of these intriguing cases on a savage episode 256.

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Channel art and audio & video editing by Jenny Ashford. Music & sound effects courtesy of freesound.org users jamespotterboy, corsica-s, enjoypa, capturedlv, luffy, kiddpark, and justkiddink. Video clips courtesy of Videezy & Videvo.