Victor of Aveyron
feral child found in 18th century France
Victor of Aveyron (French: Victor de l'Aveyron; c. 1788 – 1828) was a French feral child who was found around the age of 9. Not only is he considered one of the most famous feral children, but his case is also the most documented case of a feral child. Upon his discovery, he was captured multiple times, running away from civilization approximately eight times. Eventually, his case was taken up by a physician, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, who worked with the boy for five years and gave him his name Victor. Itard was interested in determining what Victor could learn. He devised procedures to teach the boy words and recorded his progress. Based on his work with Victor, Itard broke new ground in the education of the developmentally delayed.
Early life
Victor was prepubescent when he was captured in 1800 but experienced puberty within a year or two. It is not known when or how he came to live in the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, though he was reportedly seen there around 1795, in a state that suggested he had already spent more than two years in the wild. In 1797, he was spotted by three hunters; he ran from them, but they were able to catch him when he tried to climb a tree.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q447655. VIAF identifies the subject as 281652941. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1788, 1828, 1800 and 1795.
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This entry incorporates text from “Victor of Aveyron” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.