Man raised by wolves wishes he could go back after being brought back to civilisation

A man raised by wolves for 12 years of his life says human society has failed him and he wishes he were back living among animals again.

The man, Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja was adopted by a pack when he was stranded in Spain's Sierra Morena mountain range aged seven.

He was found as a 19-year-old running around half-naked and barefoot only able to communicate by grunting and brought back to civilisation.

Talking to EL Pais, Pantoja said that he only wrapped his feet up when they hurt because of the snow. Apparently he had such big calluses on his feet that kicking a rock was like kicking a ball.

However, now the 72-year-old lives in a small, cold house in Rante, Galicia, with only a meager pension after a tough life among humans.

Pantoja believes ever since he was ripped from the cave he called home his life went downhill as he was never fully able to reintegrate.

He claimed to have been cheated and abused, exploited by bosses in the hospitality and construction industries, and left with nothing.

Known as the Mowgli of Spain, he said the happiest days were living in a cave with bats, snakes and deer, whose calls he can still mimic.

According to his admittal, Pantoja was sent there as a goatherd after his mother died in childbirth when he was three and his abusive father ran off with another woman.

The old man he was training to replace taught him how to use fire and make utensils but either died or suddenly left, leaving the small boy all alone.

He survived by observing which berries and root vegetables animals ate and was eventually fed by a mother wolf who later adopted him.

She fed her cubs some meat which he tried to steal from one of the cubs but the mother pawed at him and growled until he backed off.

She later went on to throw a piece of meat but she kept pushing the meat towards him with her nose, he admitted to BBC in 2013.

'I took it, ate it, and thought she was going to bite me, but she put her tongue out, and started to lick me. After that, I was one of the family.'

Pantoja said he also had a snake for company who followed him around because he fed her goat's milk.

Returning to civilisation was the scariest experience of his life, first to an orphanage where the nuns taught him to walk up straight and eat at a table.

He reminisces that after the thick callouses were cut off his feet, his first visit to a barber had him terrified the razor would cut his throat.

Pantoja later tried to return to the mountains but found it was a very different place to what he remembered and his cave was replaced with cottages and electric gates.

The wolves also didn't accept him after he was away so long and kept their distance instead of embracing him as a brother.

Environmental group Amigos das Arbores is raising money to buy his house a boiler and insulation and his neighbours accept him, but others taunt his naivety.