When he was only seven years old, Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja was taken to the mountains by his parents and abandoned. But he wasn't alone: a pack of wolves adopted him and raised him as one of their own.
Twelve years later, the Spanish Civil Guards found him and brought him back to civilization. Now in his seventies, Pantoja reflected upon his experiences living amongst humans and wolves, and told us that living with wolves was actually better:
His last happy memories were of his childhood with the wolves. The wolf cubs accepted him as a brother, while the she-wolf who fed him taught him the meaning of motherhood. He slept in a cave alongside bats, snakes and deer, listening to them as they exchanged squawks and howls. Together they taught him how to survive. Thanks to them, Rodríguez learned which berries and mushrooms were safe to eat.
Today, the former wolf boy, who was 19 when he was discovered by the Civil Guard and ripped away from his natural home, struggles with the coldness of the human world.
Silvia R. Pontevedra of El Pais has the full story (Photo by Oscar Corral).