Man Raised By Chickens

Here’s another for the I-am-not-making-this-up file.

I’m sure that you’ve all heard of feral children, or children raised by wild animals, usually by fairly social animals like wolves. Well, there’s this guy named Sunjit Kumar, who lives in Fiji, who isn’t one of those. He was raised by animals, but not wild (feral) ones. Instead, he was raised by domesticated animals: chickens.

It turns out that after his parents died he was sent to live with his grandfather, who locked him in a chicken coop for several years. As a result:

“He had imitated or imprinted with the chicken,” [Elizabeth] Clayton said. “He was perching, he was picking at his food, he was hopping around like a chicken. He’d keep his hands in a chickenlike fashion, and he’d make a noise, which was like the calling of a chicken, which he still has.”

Clayton took over Kumar’s care and he has reportedly made “remarkable progress,” learning to walk and speak like a human. [Source]

You’ll note that the story says Clayton “took over Kumar’s care.” That’s because

Kumar escaped from the chicken coop and was taken to a local hospital. But the staff did not know how to treat him, so they confined him. He spent 20 years there, often tied to his bed.

Poor guy!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin