Victor of Aveyron (; ) was a French feral child who was found at the age of around 9. Not only is he considered the most famous feral child, but his case is also the most documented case of a feral child. Upon his discovery, he was captured multiple times, running away from civilization approximately eight times. Eventually his case was taken up by a young physician, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, who worked with the boy for five years and gave him his name, Victor. Itard was interested in determining what Victor could learn. He devised procedures to teach the boy words and recorded his progress. Based on his work with Victor, Itard broke new ground in the education of the developmentally delayed. Early life Victor was prepubescent when he was captured in 1800, but experienced puberty within a year or two. It is not known when or how he came to live in the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, though he was reportedly seen there around 1794. In 1797 he was spotted by three hunters; he ran from them but they were able to catch him when he tried to climb a tree. They brought him to a nearby town where he was cared for by a widow. However, he soon escaped and returned to the woods; he was periodically spotted in 1798 and 1799. On 8 January 1800, he emerged from the forests on his own. His age was unknown, but citizens of the village estimated his age to be about 12. His lack of speech, as well as his food preferences and the numerous scars on his body, suggested to some that he had been in the wild for most of his life. Discovery In 1797, a child of around nine or ten years of age was sighted in the Tarn. Two years later, he was caught by some men and dogs, escorted to the village of Lacaune and taken in by a widow. He ate nothing except for raw vegetables or vegetables he cooked himself. He ran away after a week. In the winter of 1799, he went from Tarn to Aveyron. On the 6 or the 8 of January 1800 he was spotted naked, stooped and with tousled hair by three shoemakers, who took him out of the woods. He ran away, left the woods and was discovered a week later at a dyer's house in Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance.