Why do wolves keep babies?

As early as1September 920 19, the missionary Singh found two girls raised by wolves in the jungle about 1000 km west of Kolkata, India-the older one was about 8 years old, and the younger one was only 1.5 years old. They lick food and devour raw meat like real wolves; Crawling on all fours, afraid of light; Can't talk, just complain; Afraid of humans, but like to get close to animals such as cats and dogs. From their gestures, language expressions, emotional reactions and other aspects, we can see that there are obvious traces of the wolf's life.

Singh named his sister Kamara and his sister Amara, and took them back to the Midnapur orphanage, which he and his wife jointly managed, in order to raise them as normal children. However, their long life in the jungle makes them extremely unfamiliar with human society. Young Amara was seriously ill at the end of the year, and the singers had to ask the local doctor to diagnose her illness. However, the curious doctor asked them to tell him about the patient's past life or refused to treat Amara. In desperation, the singers had to tell the doctor the story of the wolf child and asked him to keep it a secret.

But things went beyond the singers' expectations. The next morning, all the residents in the town knew this strange thing. People gathered at the gate of Mi Denebour orphanage to have a look at the legendary wolf child. Then, the newspaper published photos of Kamala and Amara, and articles about Wolf Children were even more eloquent. Since then, the wolf child has become a new topic for anthropologists and has also entered the public's field of vision.

Soon after, many wolf children were found all over the world. 1954 In a hospital in New Delhi, India, a wolf child named Lamu was imprisoned. People only need to buy tickets to get close to the 9-year-old boy. In 2007, Russian police found a boy, "Larka", who was about 10 years old in the mountains of central Moscow. The wolf child with wolf-like claws escaped 24 hours after being sent to the hospital for physical examination, and his whereabouts are still unknown. Unfortunately, scientists failed to conduct a comprehensive observation and research on them, and most of the information came from the book Wolf Child and Savage written by kamala, an early wolf child, and Singh, a missionary, about the kamala sisters.

Russian wolf child "Larka"

Maybe it's because she can't adapt to the living habits of human beings, and public opinion is too concerned. Amara, who was sickly, died of nephritis, so Mrs Singh took care of Kamara wholeheartedly and spared no expense to help her adapt to human society. From eating and drinking to pronouncing and speaking, Mrs. Singh watered kamala's young mind with endless patience, and even hoped to help her walk upright through massage and bath therapy. Although kamala was still unable to speak and walk correctly until 1929, she gradually adapted to the living habits of human beings, was no longer afraid of human beings, and relied heavily on her adoptive mother, Mrs. Singh.

However, scientists have no conclusive evidence that female wolves can raise human children. Based on the analysis of animal maternal behavior, it is believed that when a female wolf loses her cubs during lactation, she will instinctively raise the abandoned animal cubs as her own children. However, considering that the lactation period of wolf pups is only about 5 weeks, and the longest period of human babies can reach 1 year, some anthropologists are skeptical about the authenticity of wolf pups.

Today, the research on wolf children continues, so we might as well regard it as an unsolved mystery and wait for time to give an answer. So, what determines that wolves don't eat and raise human babies? Where did this maternal behavior come from and how was it passed down?

We know that a series of parenting behaviors, such as childbirth, breastfeeding, nesting before childbirth and licking young animals after childbirth, are all aimed at improving the living conditions of future generations and ensuring the development of the whole population. Because most behaviors are done by females, it is also called "maternal behavior".

Lick the cubs clean

The maternal behavior of animals is influenced in many ways: first, the maternal behavior of animals born for the first time is obviously not as strong as that of animals born for many times, which may require some experience accumulation and acquired learning, so human feeding methods and animal stress will affect their maternal behavior, and good maternal behavior will promote the survival rate and growth of future generations; Secondly, genes can also affect the maternal behavior of animals. For example, adult cuckoos will lay their eggs in other birds' nests, and cuckoos who break out of their shells first will also push the remaining eggs out of their nests. This behavior of not nesting, incubating and brooding is hidden in genes and passed down from generation to generation by cuckoo. At the same time, biologists have found that maternal behaviors of different species of the same animal are also very different. Finally, the nutritional level of animals determines their hormone secretion, and the secretion of oxytocin, estrogen, progesterone and other hormones will stimulate animal motherhood. If the animal's own nutrition intake is insufficient or it is stimulated by external stimuli such as hearing, sight and smell, it will lead to hormone secretion disorder, thus changing its maternal behavior.