Marcos Rodriquez Pantoja a man brought up in a cave in the Sierra Morena mountain range by wolves has come out to say he’s disappointed with the ‘coldness’ of the human world.
Dubbed the Spanish ‘Mowgli’, the ‘wolf man’, was found barefoot and half-naked after 12 years of living with wild animals in the Sierra Morena mountain range.
Now 71-year-old, Pantoja who lives in a small cold house in the village of Rante, has insisted that life has been much harder since he was taken from his natural home.
“I think they laugh at me because I don’t know about politics or football.”
Marcos has also attempted to return to the mountains, but found ‘it is not what it used to be’ and that the wolves don’t see him as a ‘brother’ anymore.
“You can tell that they are right there, you hear them panting, it gives you goosebumps … but it’s not that easy to see them.
“There are wolves and if I call out to them they are going to respond, but they are not going to approach me.
“I smell like people, I wear cologne.”
Marcos was born in the Cordoba province of Spain in 1946. His mother tragically died when he was only three years old, while his father went on to start a new family in another city.
He sold Marcos to an old farmer so he could help him look after 300 animals in the mountains. The goatherd taught him how to create a fire and make utensils, but died a few years later, leaving seven-year-old Marcos all alone with the animals around 1954.
When authorities found Rodríguez, he had swapped words for grunts. But he could still cry. “Animals also cry,” he says.
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