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{{trope}}
[[File:
▲[[File:TarzanandKala_2097.jpg|link=Tarzan (Disney)|right|"[[Phil Collins|Two worlds]], [[Crowning Music of Awesome|one family]]."]]
A character who lost their human parents and was raised by animals.
Animals in fiction range from the [[Funny Animal|almost human]] to the bestial, but since [[Most Writers Are Human]], animals tend to think, feel and talk like we do. Thus a literal momma bear might be an ordinary
A sister trope to [[Raised
A character raised by animals will seem unusual to ordinary folk. They may speak crudely or just strangely. They are a [[Funny Foreigner]]
Expect to see at least some discrimination. His adoptive siblings might get over him being funny-lookin', human society might get over them scratching their head with their foot, but he may ultimately be seen as a [[Halfbreed]].
It can be an extreme case of the longing for the [[Good Old Ways]]
In their original setting expect to see [[Loin Cloth
Even if things are not that bad, expect a tougher, rougher, childhood. But the [[Upbringing Makes the Hero]], so these early trials pay off later. At a minimum, someone who was Raised By Wolves will be a bit wild; impulsive, aggressive or just more in touch with base human drives.
For the most realistic take where lack of human contact makes kids feral and mute, see [[
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== [[Advertising]] ==
* In one of the "Behold the Power of Cheese" ads, three guys at a party eye the last piece of cheese on a platter. The first guy starts to take it and his mother appears on his shoulder telling him to let someone else have it. The second guy starts to take it when his mother appears saying "Don't be greedy, you weren't rased by wolves!". The third guy looks at the cheese and a howling wolf appears. After the third guy takes the cheese, the two Mothers shout "Animal!" at him. Then as a tag the third guy sticks his face in a punchbowl to lap up a drink.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
* Yamato from ''Battle B-Daman'' was raised by cats. Not tigers or anything, normal stray cats. Later he is adopted by a
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* Yamato from ''Battle B-Daman'' was raised by cats. Not tigers or anything, normal stray cats. Later he is adopted by a relative -- possibly his birth mother.
* ''[[Spider Riders]]'': Aqune was raised by Insectors. Insectors act like human beings, so she does.
* Mana from ''[[Mermaid Saga]]'', having been raised by [[
* San from ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'' was literally raised by wolves after her birth parents encountered a huge wolf in the forest when she was very young and [[Parental Abandonment|abandoned her]] in an attempt to get away safely. Indeed, it's implied that her parents literally [[
* ''[[Pokémon]]''
** In the anime episode "The Kangaskhan Kid", set in the Kanto Safari Zone, we meet Tommy, a little boy who was raised by kangaroo-oid Kangaskhan. He's been in the park since he was accidentally dropped from a helicopter by his birth parents into the park while an infant.
** ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure]]''- the main character was raised by wild Pokémon. The kid was being looked after by Professor Rowan when the good professor decided that the boy should go live with the wild Pokémon because he had the beginnings of communication with them! {{spoiler|Hareta's dad is actually alive. He's just on the run right now... although he really DID leave Hareta with Professor Rowan for no good reason the first time. [[Parental Abandonment]]...}}
* Rebecca from ''[[
* Natsu of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' was raised by the Fire Dragon Igneel. While Igneel taught him things like Fire Dragon Slayer magic and speech, he clearly wasn't able to teach Natsu typical human social customs. Then Igneel vanished when Natsu was still little. Natsu was then taken in and raised by the mages of Fairy Tail, and all of ''them'' are to some degree crazy ([[Crazy Awesome|awesome]]).
* [[
** His ''major''
*** His mistaking Bulma's breasts for an extra butt was a tasteless gag that actually worked really well.
* Ikuto/Keenan from ''[[Digimon Savers]]'' was raised by a Frigimon for most of his life after being taken away from his parents via a Digital Gate. He eventually came to terms that he was human after spending some time in the real world, but continued to have the brave heart of a Digimon (at one time getting Ninjamon recruits for his new friends in the Kurata arc, cementing his [[Heel Face Turn]]). For some reason he uses [[Hulk Speak]] despite the fact that nearly every Digimon can speak fluent English/Japanese (his Digimon partner/brother even had a British accent).
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
* ''[[Spider-Woman]]'' The original version of the [[Marvel Comics]] Jessica Drew had her raised among the [[Mad Scientist|High Evolutionary]]'s menagerie of [[Petting Zoo People]] and [[Beast Man|Beast Men]]
▲== Comic Books ==
* ''Black Condor'' - Golden Age superhero Black Condor was raised by Condors who taught him to fly, speak English, build a death ray and enough about United States Law and Politics that he could easily impersonate the dead senator who he happened to be physically identical to. Black Condor first appeared in Crack Comics #1, which is appropriate, [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made
▲* ''Spider-Woman'' The original version of the [[Marvel Comics]] Jessica Drew had her raised among the [[Mad Scientist|High Evolutionary]]'s menagerie of [[Petting Zoo People]] and [[Beast Man|Beast Men]] -- meaning that she had no idea how to interact with normal humans when she finally entered the outside world, and tended to creep out everyone she met. The recent [[Retcon]] version of her origin [[They Changed It Now It Sucks|eliminates this, though]].
▲* ''Black Condor'' - Golden Age superhero Black Condor was raised by Condors who taught him to fly, speak English, build a death ray and enough about United States Law and Politics that he could easily impersonate the dead senator who he happened to be physically identical to. Black Condor first appeared in Crack Comics #1, which is appropriate, [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs|since that is apparently what his creators were on when they thought up his origin]].
* Ran from ''Blue Sonnet'' was raised by wolves, yet she has a normal personality and skills. She was simply a normal school girl in her primary personality with a secondary personality who had a more aggressive personality and phenomenal cosmic power for reasons that had nothing to do with her wolf parents. Way to waste a backstory hook!
* ''[[
* Catman of the [[Secret Six]].
** The Golden Age Cat-Man (who is unrelated to DC's Catman but wears an oddly similar costume) was raised by tigers. Like the Black Condor above, his upbringing somehow gave him
* In the [[Green Lantern]] books, Sinestro Corspman Karu-Sil was raised by native predators of her homeworld after her parents were murdered by her neighbors for their food. Karu-Sil grew to love and care for them
* Marvel's [[Nature Hero]] Ka-Zar plays this trope straight, having been raised by Smilodons. However, his wife Shanna inverted the Trope with her companions Ina and Biri; after their mother Julani's was killed by an [[Evil Poacher]], she trained them by wearing Julani's pelt, the scent-identification [[Artistic License Animal Care| causing them to trust her as they would their mother.]]
== [[Film]] ==▼
* In ''[[Batman (
▲== Film ==
▲* In ''[[Batman (Film)|Batman Returns]]'', the classic (human) supervillain The Penguin was given a [[Retool]] of actually having been raised by penguins.
** He grew up in a circus though.
* ''[[Walk Like A Man]]'', in which the heir to a fortune played by Howie Mandel was raised by dogs.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* ''[[Tarzan]]'' famously was raised by apes. He goes on to be quite successfully socialized and a member of human society. It helps that the "apes" in question were a fictional missing-link species that had a spoken language, and that he found his human parents' house at the age of ten and ''taught himself to read'' over a few years. Tarzan's time in civilisation rarely makes it out of the original [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] novels: it is typically omitted by the numerous works inspired by the novels.
* The narrator of Karen Hesse's ''The Music of Dolphins'' was the only survivor of an airplane crash in the Caribbean as a very young child, and was taken in by a pod of dolphins. She's reasonably healthy when she's found by (aside from minor considerations, such as having ''barnacles'' all over her) and, unlike other [[Wild Child
* Big Alice from Staanley Kiesel' young adult novel ''The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids'' was raised by hyenas. Her parents were psychologists, and when they found her again, [[Parental Abandonment|they abandoned her]] to the hyenas again after an aborted attempt at rehabilitating her.
* Mowgli from [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''[[The Jungle Book (
* In Jane Lindskold's ''[[Firekeeper]]'' novels, the titular character was raised by wolves, albeit intelligent ones. A rather unusual example in that she isn't naive at all in many matters; her adjustment problems are mostly shown by the facts that she never manages to fully master elementary grammar, writing, or table manners. Or hierarchies based on blood.
** Firekeeper actually ''can'' speak properly - in the first book she does so more than once. She just omits all the words she sees as unnecessary, because the wolf language doesn't have words like "the", "a", "and", etc.
* The appropriately named Hunter in the ''[[Gone (novel)]]'' series. {{spoiler|After accidentally killing a friend with his mutant powers he is brutally hit in the head by Zil, leaving him partially brain damaged. Because of this he slurs his words a lot and doesn't understand some things}}. He is trained by the nearby mutant coyotes can speak somewhat. They teach him how to hunt: he becomes the primary food bringer for Perdido Beach along with Quinn and his fishermen.
* In ''Morality For Beautiful Girls'', by Alexander McCall Smith, a boy is found in the desert who cannot talk. He is sent to the orphan farm run by a friend of the protagonist, who asks her to investigate. Based on the fact that the boy acts more like an animal and hasn't [[Wild Child|grasped the concept]] of language, plus the fact that he smelt of lion when he was found, they conclude that he was raised by lions, but they decide to keep him at the farm because he has shown progress in learning how to talk.
* Shana, the half-elf protagonist of ''[[The Elvenbane]]'', was raised by dragons.
* Most medieval versions of [[The Fool|Parzifal/Percival]] characterized him merely as a bumpkin initially, whose inborn talents eventually get training, and then the excess of politeness and the [[Fisher King]] thing. But occasionally he gets scaled all the way to
** The Gerald Morris version has him appear as part of the finale of an early book, as a naked super-innocent who trained by wrestling lions and who loses to Gawain and decides he wants to be a knight. Later on he gets his own novel, which seems to owe its content mostly to Wolfram von Eschenbach's but omits the whole Herzeloyde bereavement back story and Feirfiz, along with...the Christianity focus, pretty much. Which is pretty impressive in an adaption of a ''Grail quest story''.
* Daine of the [[Tortall Universe]] was literally raised by wolves, at least for a little while. Her family was killed by bandits, and her dormant magical powers of being able to speak to animals came through. She joined a renegade pack, tracked down the bandits on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] and nearly lost her human self permanently.
* Implied with Wolf Boy in ''[[
* In a comic variation, Stanley from [[Terry Pratchett]] 's ''Making Money'' was raised by ''peas''. This left him with a fanatically neat disposition ("Very meticulous, peas are") and a tendency to bend slightly towards the sun when standing up straight.
* One chapter in ''[[Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark|More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark]]'' titled "The Wolf Girl" tells of a [[Wild Child]] who was raised by wolves.
* In [[Devon Monk]]'s ''[[
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* ''Lucan'' of the TV series of the same name, was literally raised by wolves. His name is a double entendre referring to his wolf family and to the difficulty he had learning English despite being a fast learner. "Lucan" is a mispronunciation of the words "You can."
* Jan Kandou from ''[[Juken Sentai Gekiranger]]'', raised by pandas and tigers. He calls himself a "tiger boy" and demonstrates incredible strength, such as having a tree fall on him with no effect. It takes him a few episodes to master the concept of things like doors. His defining trait, though, is that, while he can speak proper Japanese, he colours it with made-up babytalk words such as "nikiniki (happy) and "zowazowa" (danger). These words are used to form the show's [[Excited Episode Title
* There was an [[Inverted Trope]] in ''[[Dinosaurs]]'' that had a dinosaur that was abandoned by her parents and raised by the cavemen. She acts as a translator between dinosaurs and cavemen.
* Parodied in ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]''. Vince was raised in the forests by [[Roxy Music|Bryan Ferry]], and leopards and snakes used to babysit him.
* In one episode of ''[[Made in Canada]]'', the actor who plays Damacles comes up with a backstory for his character which includes being born of a wolf and raised by bears.
* The Huntsman from ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]'' was a creature of the forest, taken in by wolves as a small child. As a result, he
* Subverted by ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' with the character of Anya. For years, the characters thought that her odd
* In an episode of ''[[Clarissa Explains It All]]'', where Ferguson makes up a story about Clarissa in this trope as part of his campaign for student president. Of course, Clarissa was infuriated with this parody.
== [[Music]] ==
==
* ''[[Garfield]]'':
▲* The Falling in Reverse song "[[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Raised By Wolves]]".
** In a two-week long
** In another arc, Garfield meets Ted, a cat who was raised by squirrels. Supposedly, Ted got stuck up a tree as a kitten and never came down. Garfield tries to teach him to live like a regular cat, but Ted eventually gets homesick and goes back to his squirrel-family. Garfield remarks that Ted is both weird and lucky.
* Cartoonstock.com has a number of single-panel cartoons on the subject, of which this
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], [[Myth and Legend]] ==
* There are hints that [[The Epic of Gilgamesh]] was based on an earlier story that just had Enkidu moving from living with animals to being seduced by a woman into becoming a city dwelling taxpayer.
* There is an American legend about Pecos Bill, a cowboy who was raised by coyotes after he fell off a covered wagon as a baby.
* Twin brothers Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, were left to die in the wilds as infants. They were suckled by a wolf before being found and raised by a shepherd, making this minor version of this trope at least [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Mind you "she-wolf" and "prostitute" are the same word in
* Atalanta was supposedly raised by a she-bear, even considering the other bears her brothers. This led to lots of confusion when she entered the 'real world'.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* In a certain ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' adventure, the characters have to stand in as actors for a reality show, but since most Alpha Complex citizens have as much of an interesting personality as a dry toast (and less than a Happy Fun Meal), they get additional backgrounds they have to roleplay. One of the available ones is the wolfboy, who was raised by a vicious radioactive wolf until he was rescued by Alpha Complex forces. This role is somewhat difficult because with everyone living underground, no one has any idea what a wolf might be.▼
== Newspaper Comics ==▼
* ''[[Warhammer
▲* In a week long ''[[Garfield]]'' storyline Jon fell in love with a woman in a rec center who had been raised by wolves, as it turns out she had only been in civilization for a week and she had tendencies like scratching her head with her foot, messily devouring her food, trying to bite off her foot when her shoe was too tight, and howling at the moon.
▲* Cartoonstock.com has a number of single-panel cartoons on the subject, of which this troper's favourite is the one about they guy who was raised by a pack of wolves, and the cleaning lady who came in twice a month. That's right, in an ''apartment''.
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* In a certain ''[[Paranoia]]'' adventure, the characters have to stand in as actors for a reality show, but since most Alpha Complex citizens have as much of an interesting personality as a dry toast (and less than a Happy Fun Meal), they get additional backgrounds they have to roleplay. One of the available ones is the wolfboy, who was raised by a vicious radioactive wolf until he was rescued by Alpha Complex forces. This role is somewhat difficult because with everyone living underground, no one has any idea what a wolf might be.
▲* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' - Primarch Leman Russ was raised by wolves. [[Big Badass Wolf|Big Badass Wolves]], the tank-sized variety.
** In Modern times (That is, the last years of the fourtieth millenium), Canis Wulfborn, the champion of Wolf Lord Harald Deathwolf, was also raised by wolves... And, like Russ, [[Badass|managed to make himself the alpha wolf by the time he was in his teens.]] And remember, this is ''before'' he had had any genetic augmentation
* One of the NPCs from a [[Ravenloft]] supplement is a caliban (curse-mutated human) born with the head of a tiger. He was abandoned in the forest of a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Japanese-style]] domain, and found and raised by ''kami'' animal-spirits.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* In ''[[
▲== Video Games ==
* In ''[[
▲* In ''[[Legend of Legaia (Video Game)|Legend of Legaia]]'', Noa is a girl who was raised by a wolf -- albeit an intelligent, talking one. This leads to some occasional embarrassments, such as her inviting a man to take a bath with her, and knocking out whoever appears to be a "bad guy", with no regard for legality.
* In ''[[
▲* In ''[[Tales of Legendia (Video Game)|Tales of Legendia]]'', Jay was raised by a ninja, and then hundreds of talking otters. He's an antisocial "information dealer".
* Chauncey, the protagonist of the obscure sim game ''[[The Horde (
▲* In ''[[Tales of the Abyss (Video Game)|Tales of the Abyss]]'', the God General Arietta, a.k.a. "Arietta the Wild" was raised by ligers <ref> a cross between lions and tigers</ref>. Her grudge against Luke and party begins after they kill her mother, the Liger Queen, in the Cheagle Woods.
* {{spoiler|[[Pokémon Black and White
▲* Chauncey, the protagonist of the obscure sim game ''[[The Horde (Video Game)|The Horde]]'', was raised by a kind herd of wild cows.
▲* {{spoiler|[[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|N]], the leader of Team Plasma}}, was raised by Pokémon because {{spoiler|his father, Ghetsis, deliberately neglected him to condition N into a man who would hate humans.}}
** [[Word of God]] says that Iris was raised in a forest by dragons. It is unknown how much human interaction she had, but if her anime counterpart is anything to go by, she's definitely [[Incredibly Lame Pun|wild]] and quite adapted to moving about the forest.
* Gau from ''[[
* In ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'' Kevin explains that this is normal for beast men.
* There is a challenge for ''[[The Sims]] 2: Pets'' to have a toddler or child "raised" by pet animals (and one token elder grandparent or teenage sibling, since tots and kids can't pay bills or live alone without social services stepping in).
* In ''[[Mana Khemia]]'', [[The Hero|Vayne]] was raised by his talking cat named Sulphur. {{spoiler|It turns out later in the game that Vayne himself is a manufactured Mana, while Sulphur is just a mere black cat.}}
* Natural Harmonia Gropius (you can call him N) from ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' was orphaned and lost as a child and raised by Pokemon in the wilderness, living a peaceful and idyllic life - until he was found and adopted by Ghestis.
* Emily Watson from ''[[Spacetrawler]]'' was raised by coyotes. She can function in human society just fine, but she prefers to live as a nomad in the desert. She also says that coyotes are the only creature she feels any kinship towards... which doesn't prevent her from killing and eating them.
* ''[[Homestuck]]''
** The [[All Trolls Are Different|Trolls]] of the planet Alternia. As part of a coming-of-age process, they must find a native monster to become their Lusus, or guardian as they grow up.
** Jade Harley was raised by her [[Reality Warper|reality warping]] dog Bec after her Grandfather was shot in a freak accident involving Jade nearly getting herself killed, Bec, and Tavros.
* [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20010506 Parodied] in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' when Torg suffers a nervous breakdown, disappears inside his own house and is "raised" (or at least kind of adopted) by
* Parodied in [http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2011/12/care-package/ this strip] of ''[[Amazing Super Powers]]''.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130924075036/http://humon.deviantart.com/art/Kangaroo-Wife-148578041 There's] a [[Deviant ART|deviation]] about a girl raised by kangaroos.▼
▲== Web Original ==
▲* [http://humon.deviantart.com/art/Kangaroo-Wife-148578041 There's] a [[Deviant ART|deviation]] about a girl raised by kangaroos.
* [[Anyas Ghost|Vera Brosgol]]'s wordless comic ''[http://verabee.com/wolf/ What Were You Raised By Wolves?]''.
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'' plays with this trope.
** Pud'n:
{{quote|
'''Pud'n:''' Oh, we live outside outside. I was raised by wolves. *gestures towards a pair of wolves sitting in front of a randomly placed TV*
'''Father Wolf''': Hey. *waves to Billy* }}
** Another Grim Adventures example: according to Mandy's father, when Mandy was born, a pack of wolves came by to try and raise her as their own. He sometimes regrets turning them down.
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** If half of his horror stories about his parents are true, the ocelots were an improvement.
* Creepila Creecher herself from ''[[Growing Up Creepie]]'', was raised by insects.
* In ''[[Hero: 108]]'', Wu Song, a dentist, found out that his long lost twin brother was raised by dogs and became the [[Mighty Whitey|Dog King]]. The Dog King usually runs around on all fours and wears a dog pelt.
* The ''[[
* In ''[[The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl]]'', Shark Boy was raised by sharks, causing him to not only be very aggressive, but evolve shark-like superpowers! He has no problem speaking English or interacting with humans, except for his heightened agression.
* Wild Smurf in ''[[The Smurfs]]'' who the [[Delivery Stork]] lost in the forest as an infant and was raised by squirrels.
* In [[Rocko's Modern Life]], Heffer belongs to the Wolfe family, which is all wolves. The thing is though, he is a steer.
** This is a subversion though: The Wolfe family are (despite their dining habits) sophisticated suburbanites. Heffer's lack of social skills is just because he is Heffer.
* According to the Disney direct-to-video film ''Atlantis: Milo's Return'' (sequel to ''[[Atlantis:
* [[Squidbillies]] has Rusty raised by wolves while Early is in prison. We're treated to a montage of wolves doing things like teaching him to ride a bike or reading him a bedtime story... and then mauling him.
* ''[[Police Academy]]: [[Recycled: the Series|the Animated Series]]'' had one episode featuring a young man literally raised by wolves. The heroes, being cops, had the duty of finding his parents. {{spoiler|Mission accomplished.}}
* Not only [[Tarzan]] and his animated counterparts are examples of this trope, but one of those counterparts once met an [[Jungle Princess|Amazon Princess]] who was also raised by animals.
* Donnie from [[The Wild Thornberrys]] was briefly taken in by a mother orangutan after his primatologist parents were killed by poachers. The orangutan later gave Donnie up so the Thornberrys would take him in.
** One episode Donnie and Debbie encounter a young girl being raised by jaguars in the Amazon rain forest.
* The Monarch from [[The Venture Brothers]] was (very briefly) raised by [[Makes Just
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Reality Is Unrealistic|Believe it or not]], this can be [[Truth in Television]]. [
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130321152340/http://dumbdeviantart.tumblr.com/post/22485618680 im sorry for my spelling, but i was raised by wolves and they dont teach gramer]"
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]
[[Category:The Parent Trope]]
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[[Category:Animal Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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