List of fictional feral children

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Feral children, children who have lived from a young age without human contact, appear in mythological and fictional works, usually as human characters who have been raised by animals. Often their dual heritage is a benefit to them, protecting them from the corrupting influence of human society, permitting the development and expression of their own animal nature, or providing access to some innate natural wisdom by which animals survive in the wild.

In most tales, the child is lost or abandoned before being found and adopted in an encounter with a sympathetic wild animal. In some stories, the child chooses to abandon human society, such as in Where the Wild Things Are, or refuses to enter society altogether, like in Peter Pan. The child usually returns to civilization, but may decide to return again to life in the wild. They also may be depicted as unable to enter entirely into either human society or animal society.^[1]