Heart-warming
pictures of the real life Mowgli, a girl who spent the first ten years
of her life growing up in the African bush, have been released for the
first time.
The magical images chronicle the life of Tippi
Benjamine Okanti Degre, who was brought up with wild animals, just like
Rudyard Kipling's hero did in The Jungle Book. The images in
'Tippi: My Book of Africa' - now being published worldwide for the first
time - show the young girl making friends with an elephant, who she
calls her brother, and a leopard, her best friend. See more photos below:
Bond: Tippi aged 6 sitting on the back of Linda, a tamed ostrich in South Africa, left, and cradling two meerkats
Follow me: Tippi riding on Abu's neck as he leads his herd in Okavango Swamps, Botswana
The
adventure started where Tippi was born in Namibia, and ended in her
travelling through countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
'Her everyday life was making sure monkeys did not steal her bottle,' said Sylvie.
'Or
she would call me over and point to an elephant eating from a palm tree
and say 'mummy, be quiet, we're going to frighten him.'
'She had so much freedom.
'It
was like having the biggest playground. We lived in a tent, completely
in the wild, but she always woke up with the sun shining and her parents
around her. She was very lucky.'
And the incredible photos -
from sitting on the back of an ostrich, lying peacefully with a young
caracal, or dancing playfully with an elephant - show an unusual bond
and tranquility between man and beast.
'She was so at ease with animals. She would talk to them with her eyes and her heart,' said Sylvie.
Using
her innocence and imagination, the young 'Mowgli' befriended one of the
giants of the animal kingdom, Abu the African elephant.
'She had no fear,' said Sylvie.
So always had to keep a special eye on her daughter.
'I
had the least fear I wouldn't have let Tippi anywhere near them. The
photo with Tippi next to the young lion cub Mufasa sucking her thumb is
wonderful.
'The year after this photo we came back and we went to see him and he was huge.
'Mufasa
came to Tippi and he friendly brushed her with his long tail, like a
cat would do, and she almost fell down. I had to take her away - I was
not at ease.
'But she was only ever bitten once on the nose by a Meerkat, only two bites!
'This
is funny because Tippi's middle name is Okanti, meaning mongoose or
meerkat. They were part of her family in Africa, so I wanted her to have
something to take home with her.'
'The second incident was when
she met with Cindy the baboon at a water point. Cindy attacked Tippi's
hair and pulled out a handful, out of jealousy.
'That was
terribly painful! Wild animals are unpredictable. We can't be sure of
their reaction as we are not of the same species, we don't know all of
their behaviour codes.
When Tippi returned to her parents' native country - France - at the age of ten, it was hard adjusting to city life in Paris.
'She missed the animals so much,' said her mother Sylvie.
'We didn't have room for a dog in our flat, so we got a budgie instead.
'It
would go everywhere with her, even on the train, flying right by her
side, sitting on her head or falling asleep on her shoulder.
'She loved that little bird so much. He was the only friend she had.'
Now aged 23 and studying her third year in a degree in cinema, Tippi is facing a different jungle ... the concrete one.
But
the memories of her time in Africa - recorded in a series of interviews
and written up into the book - will forever live on through its pages.
'She gave her heart and thoughts away in her book,' said Sylvie.
'It is like Mowgli's story, but for Tippi it's true.'
