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Ape-Child of Teheran

Djuma, the Wolf Boy from Turkmenistan

Djuma was found in 1962 in southern Russia by oil explorers, and exhibited the usual characteristics of feral children: he howled like a wolf and savagely bit one of the oilmen.

Djuma ate raw meat

The name Djuma means the Wolf Boy. Still alive in 1991 (when he would have been about 37) Djuma was unable to walk; he ate raw meat, and would bite people when frightened, although he could brush his teeth and hair and use the lavatory. Djuma had learnt a very limited amount of language, amounting to only a few ungrammatical phrases.

A victim of civil unrest

Djuma has apparently communicated to his carers using sign language that his family were killed in a political purge, his mother throwing herself over his body to save him.

If alive today, he is presumably still in the clinic where he was expected to live out his days, spending much of his time in a world of his own, oblivious to his surroundings.