Legends of Mowgli in the Sahara Desert: When Ostriches Become Foster Parents We are accustomed to associating Mowgli with the wet Indian jungles where wolves, bears, and panthers become a family for a lost human child. But the great Sahara Desert has its own legends about wild children raised by animals. Here, among endless sands and scorching sun, ostriches play the role of wolves, and instead of bamboo thickets, there are endless dunes. These stories, passed down by word of mouth among nomads, are no less amazing and dramatic than Kipling's tale. And most astonishing of all: one of them turned out to be true. A Legend Become Reality: The Story of Hadara At the beginning of the 20th century, an event occurred in the Sahara that local nomads passed down as a legend until it reached the ears of a Swedish journalist, and then filmmakers. A little boy named Hadara, who was only two years old, was traveling with his family's caravan. A sudden sandstorm separated him from his parents. When the dust settled, the child was nowhere to be found. The family searched for him, but the boundless desert did not yield its victim. The boy was considered dead. But Hadara survived. He was found and adopted by ostriches — huge, fast, and keen-eyed birds that became his new family. He spent ten years among them, learning their habits, finding water and food in the relentless desert. He ran as fast as they did, slept, pressed against their warm bodies, and probably considered himself one of them. His best friend was a desert fox — another inhabitant of the Sahara who shared his loneliness and joys of life among the sands. When Hadara was found by people, he was already a teenager. He had to relearn to speak, count, and live among people. He created a family, but as the legend goes, years later he made an unexpected decision — to return to the desert. Perhaps the call of the sands was stronger than the call of blood. This story lies at the heart of the film "The Boy and the Fox" (L ... Read more