The Jungle Book Official US Teaser Trailer - april 2016

[Wolverine]

KIPLING - STERNDALE "PARTNERSHIP" AND CREATION OF THE JUNGLE  BOOK

While in Jungle Book there is a lot of fantasy in same time there could be found a lot of amazingly correct observations and deep knoledge about the Indian wild nature. From where did Kipling get this knoledge? Kipling was an great Anglo-Indian, same as Jim Corbett, mean he was a white man born and grown in British India. For sure he made a lot of trips in the country and knew a lot about her inhabitans. In same time most probably his experience with the wild animals of India was quite limited. That's why Kipling studied profoundly the books of the British naturalist and hunter Robert Sterndale, who lived for several years in the forested area of Central India (not far from todays Pench national park) and was deeply influenced by his ideas. He got directly the name "Seonee cave", where the fictional wolf puppies were born from the Sterndale's book: "Seonee or camp life on the Satpura range". Most curiosly Kipling was inspired by descrpiption of the wild boy grown by family of wolves near Lacknow in the Sterndale's book "Natural history of Mammalia of India and Ceylon":

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Here is not so important did the story of the wild boy from Lucknow was true but is important how the idea of Mowgli was born. Obviously Sterndale was kind of godfather of Kipling and also deserve part of the worldwide glory achieved by Jungle Book. 

Robert Sterndale:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Rudyard Kipling:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Did Kipling had his own experience with Indian wildlife, even limited. Probably yes. Kipling was born in Bombay but later moved to Pundjab (Lahore) which is situated more than thousand kilometers on northwest from Bombay. Probably he made several trips between the two places and in the end of 19th century that mean many weeks a dusty road through the mountains, forest, rivers and villages in the time when the great fauna of India was still in its prime. So Kiipling as great observer has probably thoroughly registered his conversations with the local people, villagers etc about the wild animals and jungle folks. Curiosly enough he wrote Jungle Book many years later when he was traveling through United States. Reply