The Girl who was Raised by Monkeys in Colombia

Would it even be possible for a five-year-old child to survive in the Colombian jungle for five years alone? Is it even further possible for this child to be adopted and raised by ... monkeys?

That is the claim of a British woman who immigrated from Colombia.

Marina Chapman claims that she was abducted from her family's rural home in Colombia and dumped in the deep jungle. Alone, she claims she foraged to survive and - most unbelievably of all - that her survival was facilitated by a group of White-fronted Capuchins, native monkeys of the Colombian jungle.

The thought at first is ridiculous, but following a documentary produced by the BBC, the story goes from unbelievable to merely unlikely; and in the end, all scientific data that can be collected (about 50 years after the fact) at least backs up the details of her amazing story.

Colombia was a chaotic place in the 1950s, under the pressures of an internal conflict. Millions of people were displaced according to the historians, hundreds of thousands were killed. It was the environment in which a child could easily be snatched from her parents. Chapman would not have been alone in telling a simple story of abduction, but she is very unique in telling a story of being raised by primates.

But this is the story she tells in her book, "The Girl With No Name: The Incredible Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys." And this is the story that is scoffed at by experts ... at first.

However, Chapman agreed to undergo scientific and psychological testing, and the results are very interesting. The psychologist (the only subjective studier in the mix) concludes she is suffering from false memories of her early childhood.

The primate expert disbelieves her story, until he meets her. The x-rays taken of her bones suggest malnourishment at the right time frame. Brain-wave tests suggest an intimate knowledge of primates. The clues add up. Finally, she takes her daughter back to the earliest small town in Colombia she can find on a map, recognizes the house where she was kept against her will on her return to human civilization ... and the names and stories she has told her children for a half-century are confirmed by the neighbors who still live there.

It's a captivating story of survival, one worth taking a look at.