Kind-of like The Jungle Book, but sad: a 7-year-old boy in Russia who was recently taken into the custody of social workers can only communicate in chirps, because his mother raised him among her pet birds and never spoke to him.
Reports in Russian media claim the child, suffering from "Mowgli syndrome", was found in a tiny two-room apartment that appeared to double as an aviary, filled with cages containing dozens of birds, bird feed and bird droppings.
Social worker Galina Volskaya, who helped rescue the "bird-boy" from his home in Kirovsky, Volgograd, told Russian newspaper Pravda that he was treated like another pet by his 31-year-old mother.
Because she never spoke to him, Ms Volskaya explained, the boy's only communication was with the birds he was surrounded by.
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