No, this is not the kid from the Jungle Book movie. This is Tippi Degré, the girl who grew up in the African wild and managed to not get eaten. This article is about a girl who is known as real life Mowgli. Growing up in a jungle amongst wild animals is something we have heard about only in stories and seen in movies. Mowgli and Tarzan were the famous fictitious characters who grew up and became an integral part of the wildlife.
Tippi Benjamine Okanti Degré (born 4 June 1990) is a French woman, who spent her childhood in Namibia among wild animals and tribes’ people. Tippi was born in Namibia, where her parents, Alain Degré and Sylvie Robert, worked as freelance wildlife photographers. She was named after Tippi Hedren. During her stay in Namibia, she befriended wild animals, including a 28-year old elephant Abu, a leopard nicknamed J&B, crocodiles, lion cubs, giraffes, a Northern Greater Galago, a Banded Mongoose, an Ostrich, meerkats, a baby zebra, a cheetah, a Caracal, a snake, an African Grey Parrot, giant bullfrogs and chameleons. She also befriended the Bushmen and the Himba tribes’ people of the Kalahari, who taught her how to survive on roots and berries, and to speak their language.
Tippi quickly demonstrated the ability to form unusual bonds with the animals of the wild. “She was in the mindset of these animals. She believed the animals were her size and her friends. She was using her imagination to live in these different conditions,” says Tippi’s mother Sylvia.
After living in Africa for ten years, Tippi’s parents took her back to their home country and sent her to a French state school. By then, Tippi was already a celebrity in France. She had her own book published Tippi of Africa, which became a best-selling novel. Unfortunately, Tippi did not adjust to the concrete jungle as well as she had in the African jungle.
“I don’t have friends here. Because I never see children. So the animals are my friends”. – Tippi Degré
by: Ammara Siddique
Tags: article, TIPPI DEGRE
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