Feral Animal Children: Childhood Trumps Genes

Feral children, by getting lost or being abandoned by caretakers, often grow up only among animals, no human contact. Feral children have really existed, including in modern times. This doesn't mean animals "raise" these children, but that animals are the children's only companions. In 1980, a 9-year-old Portuguese girl was rescued from a chicken coup where she had spent her entire life since age 1 without human interaction, surviving on bread scraps tossed in there by her deranged mother.

Isabel Quaresma couldn't walk, flapped her arms, squawked, and pecked at her food. Attempts to rehabilitate Isabel were no match against all of her formative years being spent amongst only chickens; the so-called critical period of brain development. Today, at about age 38, Isabel walks, understands simple commands, can only "fetch" one item at a time, and can't speak a single word.

There are many other cases of feral children --

- children growing up with animals, and these children take on the behavior of that particular animal. Many feral children cases exist involving wolves. Because wolves are very intelligent, nurturing social animals, it's no surprise that wolves would take in orphaned children as their own pups. Children who grow up among canines ambulate on all fours, bark, snarl, growl, and have an aversion to cooked food.

The critical period for language development is between birth and five years or so. If full speech hasn't been developed by the time children become feral, and if these children are rescued after age 5, there is little hope such children will ever learn speech. This brief window of time for language acquisition also applies to the development of other attributes that separate humans from animals, such as abstract thinking. This is why feral children (depending on variables) also never acquire the ability to assimilate into society, and require lifelong care.