8-Year-Old Schoolboy Has Alpine Marmots as Social Entourage

Certain chocolate commercials might have brought marmots under the spotlight, turning them into some of the most adored creatures living in Alpine regions, but few have succeeded in becoming friends with these shy animals, no matter how hard they wanted to.

Truth be told, as far as we know there is only one person who successfully turned a colony of alpine marmots into his social entourage: eight-year-old Matteo Walch, a schoolboy whom everybody now calls, “the real life Mowgli.”

Apparently, the young boy befriended the marmots almost four years ago, when his parents first took him to explore the Austrian Alps. From that moment on, the marmots have continued to display only love and affection for Matteo, regardless of the fact that he only visits them for two weeks each year.

“He loves those animals and they are not at all afraid of Matteo because he has a feeling towards them and they understand that. We go there every year now for two weeks – it’s amazing to watch the connection between a boy and his animal friends,” explains the boy's mother.

More pictures are available here.