When Rudyard Kipling created the character of Mowgli, a boy who was adopted and raised by wolves in the forests of India, surely he never thought that one day a child would live a similar life.
Tippi Benjamine Okanti Degre, the real-life Mowgli She is a French girl who spent the first 10 years of her life in the jungle, but unlike our friend, she only lived the fun adventures and not her hard life for survival.
Tippi was born in Windhoek, Namibia in 1990, and is daughter of Sylvie Robert and Alain Degre, two wildlife photographers, Tippi was exposed to the wild residents of African jungles since she was born. Her parents traveled from one end of the country to the other in search of exotic animals and of course she went with them, to the point that many nights they slept in tents in the middle of the jungle. You can imagine why our little girl had very little fear of wild animals.
Unlike Mowgli, Tippi's parents they were always by his side protecting her and the only animals she had contact with were those that had been adopted by humans in national parks. Always on the premise that despite everything they were wild and dangerous animals, Tippi He had very few dangerous encounters, such as when a mandrel tried to steal his bottle of milk or when a Meerakat thought his nose was interesting enough to eat it. The most serious incident was when Cindy, a baboon, was jealous of Tippi's hair and decided to take away a handful.
But in general, the young girl that many natives said she had a special connection with animals, had a magical life, spent her days riding in ostriches, walking with leopards (domesticated, yes) and making friends among huge elephants. In fact, his best friend was Abu, the elephant in the photo.
Not only that, but he also spent a lot of time with the local Bushmen who adored the free spirit of the little girl.
But this magical life ended when he turned ten and his parents decided to return to Paris. Today she is a 23-year-old girl who studies cinematography in Paris, but her memory has remained intact and has just published her biography of those days entitled "Tippi, My Book of Africa", which of course has been a success.
I don't think I would spend 10 years in the middle of Africa with a baby, and you? Would your baby be another Tippi, the real life Mowgli?
