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Basic Trope: An orphaned child is raised by animals.

  • Straight: Bob is taken in by a pack of wolves and raised as if he were one of them after his parents die in an accident.
  • Exaggerated:
    • An entire generation is raised by animals after losing or being abandoned by their human parents.
    • Bob grows up with every known species of animal tending to his needs and teaching him to fend for himself.
  • Downplayed: Bob is temporarily separated from his parents and is looked after by some wolves before he reunites with his mother and father.
    • Bob is raised by intelligent talking wolves. They know a little about humans but don't make contact with them so Bob gets a but has to figure things out on his own since they lack the manual dexterity for technology.
  • Justified:
    • The wolves took in Bob because they saw no reason to maul him and felt bad about him losing his family.
    • One of the pack's females recently lost a cub, and she sees Bob as My Greatest Second Chance.
    • Bob was among her litter just after she gave birth… so what if one of her cubs looks a bit weird, she loves him all the same.
  • Inverted: Raised by Humans
  • Subverted: Bob is found and adopted by another couple before the wolves take him in.
  • Double Subverted: The wolves end up raising Bob anyway when his foster parents are also killed.
  • Parodied:
    • Bob is raised by Funny Animal wolves who embody all the wacky family member archetypes, such as the worrywort mother and the irascible father.
    • As an adult, Bob introduces his children to their grandparents by taking them to the zoo.
  • Zig Zagged: After Bob's parents are killed, his situation alternates between being raised by animals and being raised by proper foster parents.
  • Averted:
    • Animals in the work do not look after abandoned children.
    • Children in the work never lose their parents, especially not while in the wild.
  • Enforced: "We've got to have some reason why the Nature Hero gets along with the animals so well. It'd make perfect sense if he's been around animals since he was a child."
  • Lampshaded: "This guy was raised by otters? No wonder he's having trouble socializing with other people."
  • Invoked: A shaman who foresaw Bob being orphaned bewitches him so that the wildlife will take care of him after his parents get killed.
  • Defied: Social services do whatever they can to pry abandoned children from animals that try to look after them.
  • Discussed: "You mean to tell me that your parents were tigers? How are you still alive right now?!"
  • Conversed: "It might surprise you that even the most fearsome predators can be nurturing to whatever young creature comes into their care."
  • Implied: Bob is a bit feral in behavior and is mentioned to have spent many years of his life in the wild.
  • Deconstructed: Because he spent so many years of his life away from civilization, Bob has No Social Skills and is subjected to a lot of mockery and discrimination.
  • Reconstructed: The people who don't mistreat Bob do their best to help him fit in with the rest of humanity.
  • Played for Laughs: Bob has a family portrait of his animal parents with their paws on his shoulders and smiling at the camera.
  • Played for Drama: Bob's life of being raised by animals has made him so feral that he unwittingly harms the people who try to help him.

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