A Spanish man apparently raised by wolves says since leaving the pack he has been disappointed by humans. Have others reportedly reared by animals felt the same?

You would be forgiven for thinking stories of orphans growing up with wolves were the domain of The Jungle Book or the mythic founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus.

In reality, such tales might not be so far-fetched. In 1965, people living in Spain’s Morena mountains discovered Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja, who has been dubbed the Mowgli of Spain, who had apparently been living in a cave with a pack of wolves.

Pantoja’s mother died when he was young, and his father sold him to a local farmer who also died soon after. Pantoja, who was the subject of a documentary in 2010, estimates he was six when he retreated into the mountains, to live with the pack that was to become his family for the next 12 years. Now 72, he has revealed that in the years since, human life has been a disappointment. He has even attempted to go back to the mountains, but, as he told El Pais, “it’s not what it used to be” – the wolves have forgotten him. “If I call out they are going to respond, but are not going to approach me,” he says. “I smell like people, I wear cologne.”

How does his experience compare with that of other children apparently raised by wolves?

Shamdeo

Shamdeo was four years old when he was discovered in a forest in India in 1972. According to photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten, who recently undertook a project called Feral Children, he was playing with wolf cubs. “He had sharpened teeth, long hooked fingernails, matted hair and calluses on his palms, elbows and knees. He was fond of chicken-hunting, would eat earth and had a craving for blood.” The boy died in 1985 – it’s not clear if he ever fully adjusted to life with humans.

The wolf boy of Hesse

A story dating back to 1304 tells of a boy kidnapped by wolves and raised in the German region of Hesse. According to a translation by Karl Steel, an expert in critical animal studies and posthumanism, the boy’s meals were prepared by the doting wolves, which even, according to reports, made a small pit furnished with leaves to protect him from the cold. Like Pantoja, he apparently preferred living among the wolves.

The Chilean “Dog Boy”

ABC News reported in 2001 that the “Dog boy”, who has not been named, was abandoned by his 16-year-old mother and, after spending a period in care, fled to live among a pack of wild dogs in a cave. The boy would scavenge with the dogs for food and eat out of bins. It is said the boy wanted to remain with his new family so much that he even jumped into the Pacific Ocean to evade capture by the police.