Woman raised by monkeys in jungle was terrified seeing her reflection for first time.

There is a moment in every human life when we first understand that we are separate—that the face in the mirror is our own, and that we are distinct from the world around us. For most, that moment comes in infancy, forgotten as quickly as it arrives. For Marina Chapman, it came in the jungle, after years of living among monkeys, and it arrived with a shock she has never forgotten.

Chapman was four years old when she was kidnapped from her home in Colombia by trafficking gangs and abandoned in a rainforest. She has said she spent up to seven years living among a troop of capuchin monkeys, surviving on seeds, water, and the scraps they left behind. She learned their sounds—a whistle for food, a screech for danger—and forgot her own language .

The monkeys did not accept her immediately. They watched from a distance, then gradually began to approach, climbing onto her shoulders and playing with her hair. "That was a great comfort for me because I was feeling very isolated," she told OMG Stories Up Close. "I felt very solitary and for this animal to climb over my shoulders and stay there playing with my hair. That was really comforting for me when I was waiting for people to come for me. Nobody turned up" .

Then she found a piece of mirror. "It was a shock of my life because I didn't realise about my face," she said. "It was the first time I saw my face. For me, I just thought, I am not like a monkey. I felt like I was related to them. I was beginning to feel a little bit confused" .

Chapman, now in her mid-seventies, eventually left the jungle after encountering hunters. She was taken to Cúcuta, escaped a brothel, lived on the streets, and was eventually taken in by a British couple who raised her in the UK. She has written a book about her experiences, The Girl With No Name, and has undergone lie detector tests and scrutiny from experts, none of whom have found evidence to disprove her account .

She described the process of becoming human again as "very painful." She could not open doors, eat properly, or use a knife and fork. "I was completely useless," she said . Today she is married with two daughters and two grandchildren. Her greatest regret, she has said, was leaving the jungle. She still hopes to find the forest she came from—and has said she would not report the kidnappers if they came forward. "One day they might come and say 'this is the jungle we took you out of,'" she said. "I won't do anything to them. That's my wishful thinking that it could happen" .

AI Image Disclaimer: The images accompanying this article are generated by artificial intelligence and are intended for illustrative purposes only.

Sources: The Mirror US, The Mirror, Daily Express, OMG Stories Up Close, The Advertiser