Traian Caldarar, Romania’s Mowgli Boy
In 2002, Romania’s “Mowgli Boy” was reunited with his mother, Lina Caldarar, after years of living with wild animals in the forests of Transylvania. Traian — nicknamed Mowgli by hospital staff after the character in The Jungle Book — was found by a shepherd, barely alive, huddled in a cardboard box, naked and the size of a three-year-old. He had forgotten how to speak. Doctors say it would have been almost impossible for him to have survived alone, and believe he was looked after by wild dogs in the Transylvanian forests. His mother, who recognized him from a television news report, said that she had fled from her husband’s home three years earlier after he beat her. She believes Traian ran away for the same reason.
