Top 39 Best Jungle Book Characters Of All Time
The Jungle Book is a children’s classic storybook written by Rudyard Kipling. The book was released in 1894 and it has endured through the years as one of the best children’s stories.
Part of the charm of the story can be attributed to the Disney animated film made about the book.
The Jungle Book tells us about the friendship, love, and camaraderie of various animals in the forest. We often call them wild animals, but they also have a code and natural order that they follow.
The story is about a young child called Mowgli who is abandoned in the forest and is quickly adopted by a set of seemingly wild animals.
While most of them are friendly toward Mowgli, there are a few animals who want to kill him due to their enmity with humans.
We also encounter a few human characters from a village bordering the forest. Kipling’s version of The Jungle Book follows Mowgli’s life in the jungle.
Disney adapted the book and introduced a few new characters for entertainment. The animated series brought in a few more new characters as well.
To make things clear and easy for the fans of the book, ENTOIN brings you a list of popular Jungle Book characters that we all love.
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1. Bagheera
Bagheera is the slender black panther who rescues Mowgli as an infant stuck in a broken canoe in the river.
He is an honorable, loyal, affectionate, duty-bound panther who does not tolerate nonsense. He is a strict disciplinarian who despises tomfoolery and laziness the most.
Despite being the tritagonist of Disney’s The Jungle Book animated film, We need to list Bagheera at the top of any Jungle Book list because his wisdom, majesty, and benevolence are traits that few can espouse.
Bagheera dotes on Mowgli but appears strict and unyielding. He considers Baloo his best buddy but hesitates to share affection as it is not in his nature.
Bagheera dislikes human predators as much as Shere Khan but also believes in justice and objectivity.
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2. Baloo
Baloo is a sloth bear living in the Seoni jungle in India. He is a lazy, fun-loving, easy-going, and good-natured bear.
He comes upon a human child called man-cub and decides to protect it rather than kill it or abandon it like many other animals in the jungle.
Rudyard Kipling wrote Baloo in a very different light than the Disney version of Baloo. Kipling’s Baloo is a hard taskmaster who practiced tough love and punishments.
However, Walt Disney wanted a more loving and laid-back bear who loves jazz and swing music. The film version is the exact opposite of the original idea, yet they have the objective to ensure Mowgli is safe and back with the humans.
The best part of Disney’s The Jungle Book is the brotherhood between Bagheera and Baloo, who have the same goal but different paths.
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3. Shere Khan
Shere Khan is the main antagonist of The Jungle Book. He is a Bengal tiger that has ruled over the jungle since its birth and has a deep-rooted hatred for man and his weapons.
While Shere Khan is the bad guy, his character is not uncharacteristically mean or evil. Shere Khan is like every other leader who lets power get to his head.
He is belligerent, sadistic, reckless, and an embodiment of power. He believes in carrying himself in a composed, majestic manner as a king should.
However, he lacks the kindness, mercy, tolerance, or patience of a ruler. Shere Khan was initially a friend of Baloo, Bagheera, Kaa, Louie, and Hathi.
But, he let power get to his head and turned his back on the very friends he once protected. It was in his quest for respect and glory as the ruler of the jungle.
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4. Mowgli
Mowgli is the protagonist of The Jungle Book. He is the human child or man-cub who comes to live with the wolf pack after Bagheera rescues him from the river.
He is a naive, innocent, happy-go-lucky child who just wants to have fun. Mowgli does not understand the dangers posed by the jungle and the schemes of the other animals.
As any child of 10 years, Mowgli wants affection, attention, and a place to belong. He doesn’t understand much of the dynamics of the world around him due to his sheltered existence in the wolf pack.
However, Mowgli is also stubborn, headstrong, reckless, and immature. Mowgli has a hard time understanding why Bagheera and the wolf pack want to send him to an unknown human village.
He fails to see their love and misunderstands the action as abandonment, but in the end, it all clears up.
5. Akela
Akela is the alpha wolf of the pack of wolves in The Jungle Book, written by Rudyard Kipling. In the film, Akela raises the orphaned human boy Mowgli.
He is a wise and fair leader, but he also has a strong sense of duty to protect the pack and the jungle.
He is a kind and supportive mentor to Mowgli, but he ultimately must make the difficult decision to exile Mowgli from the pack in order to protect the other wolves.
In the end, however, Mowgli returns to the pack and helps to defeat Shere Khan, proving himself to be a true member of the wolf pack.
In a flashback of Jungle Cubs, we see Akela being chased out of his pack by the leader Cain who also loved Akela’s wife.
Akela took shelter with the cubs, and that was where his friendship between Bagheera, Baloo, and the group began.
6. Colonel Hathi
Colonel Hathi is an Indian elephant who is the leader of the herd. He was a part of a Maharajah’s pachyderm squadron which led to his experience in the military.
Colonel Hathi also won a Victoria Cross for his valor in the army, and that cross is his pride and joy.
Hathi is a strict disciplinarian and takes his responsibilities as a leader very seriously. He is very organized and orderly, and he expects the same from his herd.
However, at the same time, the Colonel is also pompous and immature like a British soldier. He follows rules without understanding the meaning behind them.
Despite his strict demeanor, he is a good leader who cares about the well-being of his herd and the jungle as a whole.
He is also a loving father to his daughter, Winnie, and is proud of her when she helps Mowgli defeat the villainous tiger Shere Khan.
7. Kaa
Kaa is an Indian Rock Python from the Seoni jungles. He is the secondary antagonist who is at odds with Mowgli and wants to eat him.
Kaa has the ability to mesmerize his prey with his hypnotic eyes and lulls them into a sense of trust before he swallows them whole.
For this ability, the python is a dangerous foe. However, Kaa is not a malevolent character by nature. He only hunts for survival and not for sadistic pleasure.
The fact that he hypnotizes his prey before a kill strike proves that he wants to give them a quick and easy death.
It is interesting to know that Kipling had written Kaa as a wise, benevolent mentor of Mowgli, unlike his Disney characterization.
Just like Baloo, Walt Disney changed Kaa’s personality to suit his narrative to be a secondary villain.
8. King Louie
King Louie is the king of apes in the Seoni jungle. He is a character created solely for Disney’s The Jungle Book aa Rudyard Kipling did not write about any such ape king.
King Louie was fashioned after the singer-songwriter, Louis Prima. King Louie is a fun-loving, mischievous monkey who only ever wants to party.
He lives in the ancient ruins with his fellow apes and spends his time dancing to jazz and swing music and singing all day.
He has an endless supply of bananas and other fresh fruits with a number of ape servants. King Louie is a harmless character, but he schemes to become a man and kidnaps Mowgli to learn about the ways of men.
9. Shanti
Shanti is the little girl from the man-village that borders the forest. In Rudyard Kipling’s book, Shanti’s character was developed only in the second book as the girl that Mowgli falls in love with.
Using this as a basis, Walt Disney extended her role in The Jungle Book Part One and created Shanti.
She is a beautiful 12-year-old girl with pretty eyes and a melodious voice. When Mowgli hears her sing, he instantly falls in love with her and even agrees to follow her to the village.
Shanti is an intelligent, hard-working, rule-following little girl. Initially, she is afraid of wild animals, but when she has to look for Mowgli, she overcomes her fear and enters the jungle.
Shanti is a caring, forgiving, and loving girl who has the maturity to forgive those who have harmed her too.
10. Father Wolf (Rama)
Father Wolf, or Rama, is a wolf from Akela’s wolf pack. He is the wolf that accepts Mowgli as his adopted son, along with his wife Rakshaa.
He cares for and dotes on Mowgli like one of his own litter and sadly looks on as Mowgli has to be sent off to the man village for the safety of the pack.
In the book, Kipling only refers to him as Father Wolf, and the name Rama is used for another water buffalo.
However, Disney decided to flesh out Father Wolf’s character a little more and depicted him as an affectionate father character.
He immediately accepts Mowgli into his litter when Bagheera brings in the man-cub. He also defends Mowgli in the meeting to decide the fate of Mowgli after Shere Khan issues a warning to everyone who protects the man-cub.
11. Grey Brother
Grey Brother is the wolf brother of Mowgli. He is a character from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, a live-action film made in 1994.
He is not a Disney character. Grey Brother was a domesticated wolf pet of Mowgli and his father Nathoo.
As the story goes, Grey Brother and a 5-year-old Mowgli were rescued by Bagheera when Shere Khan destroyed their jungle camp.
Grey Brother was adopted by the local wolf pack along with Mowgli as they were both innocent, helpful, and caring to each other.
Grey Brother grew up to be a strong fighter of the pack and continued to help and protect Mowgli into his adulthood.
He helps Mowgli reunite with Kitty Brydon and saves Baloo when he is shot.
12. Hathi Jr.
Hathi Jr. is the son of Colonel Hathi and Winifred. He is the only calf in the herd of elephants, but that does not stop him from participating in the daily patrols.
He idolizes his father and dreams of becoming a colonel one day. Hathi Jr. is a friendly, caring, and adventurous young elephant.
He immediately befriends Mowgli and even pesters his father to look for Mowgli when he is kidnapped. However, Hathi Jr. has a tendency of wandering slowly only to get left behind by the herd.
This causes his father a lot of worries. Hathi Jr. features in the first part as a good friend of Mowgli but has a smaller role in The Jungle Book 2.
13. Buzzy, Flaps, Dizzy, Ziggy (The Vultures)
Buzzy, Flaps, Dizzy, and Ziggy are minor characters but are very popular. They were created as a parody of The Beatles.
They were not a part of the original book by Kipling. The first movie only has four vultures, but the sequel brings in another vulture called Lucky.
The role of the Vultures was only to sing songs, but they are not bad characters. In fact, after Mowgli escapes from Kaa, he encounters Buzzy, Flaps, Dizzy, and Ziggy who are bored.
They sing a song to cheer up Mowgli, whom they had teased earlier. The Vultures make it a point to annoy Shere Khan as he keeps hunting for Mowgli. They consider Mowgli as their friend and thereby dislike Shere Khan.
14. Buldeo
Buldeo is a secondary antagonist in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. He is seen only in the live-action version of the film and not in Disney’s animated film.
Buldeo is a greedy, traitorous, treasure seeker, and dishonest man. At the start of the film, we see that Buldeo is a tour guide just like Nathoo.
He angers Shere Khan when he hunts the animals in the jungle for fun. Nathoo chastises him for that.
Shere Khan attacks the camp to avenge the animals killed, and here we see the cowardly and ungrateful side of Buldeo, who runs away instead of helping to kill the tiger.
Years later, we see an impoverished Buldeo as he attacks Mowgli for his jeweled dagger. He wants to know where the treasure came from proving his greed did not die as yet.
15. Ranjan
Ranjan is the child of the Man-village chief and Messua. He is just a toddler and looks up to Shanti as his protective older sister.
Ranjan also is captivated by the life and stories of Mowgli, his adoptive brother. He looks up to Mowgli with adoration akin to hero worship.
Ranjan is a fun-loving, mischievous, and slightly reckless toddler. He follows Shanti around the village and even goes into the village to look for Mowgli.
He can be brave when he has to protect Shanti from Kaa. However, when both of them are faced with Shere Khan, he is too scared to do anything.
Ranjan loves Mowgli’s shadow puppet plays. But like any excited child, he jumps onto the screen to fight Shere Khan every time he appears and wrecks the stage.
16. William Boone
William Boone is a minor character in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. He only appears in the live-action film and not in the Disney animated movie.
Boone is a hunter who comes to the jungle in search of big game and is initially depicted as greedy and ruthless.
However, after he is captured by the man-eating tiger Shere Khan and rescued by Mowgli, the main character of the story, he becomes more compassionate and respectful towards the animals of the jungle.
William Boone eventually returns to the human world, but his experiences in the jungle have left a lasting impression on him, and he becomes a more understanding and sympathetic person.
17. Flunkey
Flunkey is an ape in Disney’s animated adaptation of The Jungle Book. He is a servant in the ancient ruins palace of King Louie of the Bandar-log and is depicted as being a feisty scene-stealing ape.
He serves the ape king but does not miss a chance to annoy King Louie. Flunkey is often shown performing menial tasks for King Louie behaving as a butler and server during all the parties.
He often speaks with a posh British accent but behaves like a naughty ape. He loves to imitate King Louie in his attitude and mannerisms.
In The Jungle Book 2, King Louie appears to have disappeared from the jungle, and Flunkey takes over as the King of Apes. He still behaves like Louie despite his absence.
18. Lucky
Lucky is a vulture who joins Buzzie and the gang in The Jungle Book 2. He is a happy-go-lucky fun-loving vulture who speaks in a cockney accent.
He is not the brightest bulb in the room as he does not know when to shut his mouth.
Lucky is introduced to Shere Khan by Buzzie, Flaps, Dizzy, and Ziggy at the start of the film, and from that point onward, Lucky makes it a point to tease Shere Khan.
Even when his life’s on the line, Lucky continues to tease the tiger, which leads to him being mauled by it.
Despite all his flaws, Lucky is a hyperactive vulture who loves to have a good laugh, and he cannot control himself when he has the spotlight on himself.
19. Katherine Brydon
Katherine “Kitty” Ann Brydon is the main character of the Live-action film made in 1994. She is the daughter of Colonel Geoffrey Brydon and the love interest of Mowgli.
She is the childhood friend of Mowgli, whom she meets only after he becomes an adult. Kitty Brydon is a friendly, intelligent, caring, and kind daughter of the Colonel.
She befriends Mowgli as a child and gives him a bracelet that her mother gave her. After the attack of Shere Khan, she fears that Mowgli is dead.
Years later, she meets Mowgli again and recognizes him with the bracelet. Kitty and her mentor Dr. Plumford decided to teach Mowgli how to be civilized and integrate him into human society.
When she sees Captain Boone’s evil intentions, she breaks her engagement with him and supports Mowgli.
20. Messua
Messua is a character in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. She is the wife of the village Chief and the mother of Ranjan.
Messua is the adoptive mother of Mowgli whom she gladly adopts after he follows Shanti into the man village.
Messua is depicted as being kind and compassionate. She does not distinguish between Mowgli and Ranjan but treats them equally well.
She is much more lenient with the children when it comes to discipline. Messua is also very supportive, putting others before herself.
Messua is also shown to be fiercely protective of Mowgli. She encourages and supports the village chief to go into the jungle to search for Mowgli, Ranjan, and Shanti.
21. Bandar-log
Bandar-log is the pack of apes under the leadership of King Louie. They are a mischievous bunch of good-for-nothing.
Just like their king, the Bandar-log love to party, sing and dance all day. When they see Mowgli in the jungle with Baloo, they kidnap him and take him to King Louie.
Their appearance is very short. As soon as they take Mowgli to their king, he tries to woo Mowgli to teach him about humans.
While King Louie and the Bandar-log and singing and dancing, Baloo and Bagheera rescue Mowgli and send him off to the man village.
22. Tabaqui
Tabaqui was supposed to be a jackal sidekick to Shere Khan in Disney’s animated movie. However, it was canceled.
In the 1994 adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Tabaqui is a human villain. He is one of the main henchmen and bandits in the team of William Boone.
Tabaqui and Buldeo get greedy for the treasures hidden in the city of Hanuman, and they convince William Boone to trap Mowgli to lead them to the treasure.
When Mowgli refuses to do it, they capture Kitty Brydon and lead the team into the jungle. Once Tabaqui is confronted by Shere Khan in the jungle, he runs away and tries to kill Mowgli out of anger. Eventually, he falls over the cliff and dies.
23. Winifred
Winifred is Colonel Hathi’s wife and the mother of Hathi Jr. She is a part of the Elephant herd, and she needs to patrol the forest daily as part of the drill set up by her husband.
She is openly annoyed with this patrol and keeps picking at it with her husband. Winifred is not a docile and timid mother by any stretch.
In fact, she is sarcastic and snide about the stubborn nature of Colonel Hathi. She doesn’t shy away from speaking her mind.
However, she is not a shrew either. She loves to help those in need and has a caring nature.
When her son befriends Mowgli, Winifred convinces the Colonel to set up a search party.
24. Raksha
Raksha is the mother wolf that adopts Mowgli as a baby in Disney’s animated film. Her character was not a fully fleshed-out role with dialogues, but the fact that Raksha agrees to take care of Mowgli along with her litter of wolf pups shows her loving and motherly instincts.
In the 2016 live-action version of The Jungle Book, we see more of Raksha. When Bagheera brings the little man-cub to the family of wolves, Rama, as well as Raksha, readily adopts Mowgli.
She treats him the same as her other cubs, chiefly Grey Brother. When Mowgli is exiled from the pack due to the threat of Shere Khan, she worries for Mowgli and his safety.
25. Dr. Julius Plumford
Dr. Julius Plumford is a British doctor and surgeon. He appears in the live-action version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book from 1994.
He is a good-hearted and helpful doctor who accompanies Colonel Brydon and his daughter through a tour of the Black Jungle.
When Shere Khan attacks their camp to avenge the killing of animals for fun, Dr. Plumford attends to the injured.
Years later, Mowgli is back in the village, and Dr. Plumford immediately recognizes him as the 5-year-old son of the tour guide Nathoo.
He and Kitty teach Mowgli about the basic manners needed to live in a society and tries to impart education.
While the doctor is not directly related to Kitty, he deeply cares for her as his student and wants her to be safe and happy with Mowgli.
26. Dholes
Dholes is a minor antagonist who appears in the animated series The Jungle Cubs. They are inspired by the Rudyard Kipling book that describes them as a pack of red dogs that cause mayhem in the jungle.
In the TV series, the Dholes are a pack of dogs that run through the jungle marauding their way and destroying everything.
The Jungle Cubs gang up and trick the pack of dogs into a trap filled with bees. The personality of these Dholes was similar to that of Tabaqui and John Karnage.
27. Arthur and Cecil
Arthur and Cecil are two vultures who appear in the main cast of The Jungle Cubs animated series. They are not Rudyard Kipling’s characters.
While in The Jungle Book film, Disney used the vultures as positive comic characters, in the TV series, these two vultures are negative comic characters.
Arthur and Cecil are two vultures who are waiting for one of the cubs to die so that they can feast on them.
While the two Vultures are not smart or scheming enough to plot their demise, Arthur and Cecil are always present when the cubs are in danger.
However, amongst themselves, the two vultures are the best of friends, fun-loving and adventurous.
28. Nathoo
Nathoo, a character in various versions of The Jungle Book, has different depictions across adaptations.
In one version, he is portrayed as Meshua’s husband, who was taken by a tiger, possibly Shere Khan. When Mowgli arrives in their village, Meshua and the villagers believe he is Nathoo returned to them.
In the anime version of Jungle Book Shōnen Mowgli, Nathoo is mentioned separately from Mowgli, emphasizing that their eyes are different.
In Disney’s 1994 live-action film, Nathoo is depicted as Mowgli’s father. He works as a jungle tour guide and is a widower, having lost his wife during Mowgli’s birth.
Tragically, Nathoo is killed by Shere Khan as revenge for three of Nathoo’s customers who killed a few animals in the jungle. Buldeo was the intended target, but Nathoo saved him and suffered the consequences.
29. Seeonee Wolf Pack
The Seeonee wolf pack is the name of the pack of wolves that inhabit the jungle in this children’s book. The Seeonee pack is led by the wise and honourable wolf, Akela. It is also the wolf pack that shelters the man-cub, Mowgli. Father Wolf and Rakshaa (Mother Wolf) also belong to this pack.
The Seeonee pack is an honourable pack that strictly believes in and follows the laws of the jungle. They also follow their leader Akela and fight or protect under his command. When Bagheera, the black panther, requests for help to protect Mowgli, they acquiesce. They also valiantly fight all the bad guys in support of Mowgli.
30. Ikki (Sahi)
Ikki is an Indian crested porcupine and one of the friends of Mowgli. In some versions of the animated series, Ikki is also referred to as Sahi.
Ikki is a female porcupine who is friendly and helpful but a total gossip. She loves to gossip about different people, and Mowgli is not excluded from the list.
Once Ikki spreads a rumor that Mowgli is a coward because he ran away from Tabaqui instead of fighting him.
The truth was that Mowgli was unconscious and did not know what happened.
31. Leah
Leah is the mate of Akela from the Seeonee Wolf Pack. She appears in the Jungle Cubs TV series along with Akela.
She loves Akela and wants to be his wife. However, Cain does not agree with it. She wants Leah for himself and chases Akela and Leah out of the pack.
Akela and Leah take refuge with the cubs and settle with them as their friends. However, they have a disagreement with the cubs and go away.
Immediately, Cain and his henchmen are back to fight Akela and Leah. During this fight, the cubs come back to help Akela win the fight and take control of the wolf pack.
32. Colonel Geoffrey Brydon
Colonel Geoffrey Brydon is a British army officer from the live-action film 1994. He is the father of Kitty Brydon and the friend of Dr. Plumford.
Colonel Brydon is a good man who only wants what is best for his daughter and believes that Captain Boone is a good man and he will keep Kitty safe and happy.
However, after the engagement, Boone kidnaps Kitty Brydon to lure out Mowgli and also injures the Colonel. This breaks his confidence in Boone.
He breaks off their engagement and supports Mowgli.
33. The Croc
The Croc is a minor villain in The Jungle Cubs TV series. He is a crocodile who comes to live in the waterhole in the jungle.
He is introduced in the episode How the Panther Lost His Roar. The vultures, Arthur and Cecil, plot to get the cubs attacked by the new crocodile in the waterhole so that they can feast on them.
Bagheera overhears them plotting, but he cannot inform his friends as he lost his voice. Despite the hurdle, Bagheera fights the Croc to intimate his friends of its presence.
34. Dictator Turtle
Dictator Turtle is an antagonist in the TV series The Jungle Cubs. He is a dictator who rules over the Embarrassment Colony in the Jungle.
In one episode, Bagheera is embarrassed about coughing up a fur ball and runs away to The Embarrassment Colony.
This place is ruled by the tyrannical Dictator Turtle, who does not come out of his shell ever. He prohibits everyone from ever laughing because they were all laughed at.
He also foolishly orders everyone to attack the jungle for revenge.
35. Rocky the Rhino
Rocky the Rhino is a character that was supposed to appear in Disney’s animated adaptation film but got canceled.
Later, he was used in the 2016 live-action film made by Jon Favreau. He was created as a friendly and good-natured rhinoceros who befriends Mowgli through the Vultures.
He was supposed to be pranked by the Vultures to fight Mowgli but befriends Mowgli after bashing into a rock.
In the end, he just ends up as a minor character who lives in the jungle with his daughter Raquel in a water hole.
36. Ned, Jed, Fred
Ned, Jed, and Fred are baboon brothers who live in the wastelands of Pinnacle Rock. They are recurring villains in the TV series The Jungle Cubs, where they, along with their mother, target the cubs every time anyone enters the wastelands.
The three baboons terrorize anyone who enters Pinnacle Rock and behaves like hooligans. On one occasion, Winifred’s uncle needed some healing red clay from the wastelands to heal his wounds, but Colonel Hathi had trouble getting the clay because of the baboon brothers.
37. McCoy The Bear
McCoy is a friendly bear who visits The Jungle Cubs in one episode. He comes down the mountains in search of food and encounters a Cheetah attacking Baloo and Louie.
He comes to their aid and chases the Cheetah away. McCoy befriends Louie and Baloo but becomes closer to Baloo due to shared interests.
This makes Louie jealous after seeing McCoy and Baloo spend more time together. Soon McCoy realizes Louie’s pain and helps the friends patch up.
38. Chil
Chil is a Kite (a Brahminy Kite bird to be precise) with a minor role in The Jungle Book lore.
He is a friend of Mowgli who carries messages for the wolf pack and Hathi’s herd. Mowgli learns the language of Chil and thus he is able to intercept messages and get information from Chil for Baloo and Bagheera.
Being a bird, he stays aloof from most characters, hence he is perceived to be mean and hostile. Yet, Chil is very helpful to Mowgli in escaping the Bander-Log. He appears in the episodes of The Jungle Cubs and in the live-action film.
39. The Bandits
The Bandits are a minor antagonist group who appear in the live-action Jungle Book film from 1994. They are a group of Indian and Nepalese bandits who are scouring the jungle for the Lost City of Hanuman, looking for the mythical treasures.
In the film Colonel Geoffrey Brydon, Tabqui, Baldeo, and the group enlist the help of the Bandits to track down Mowgli. They are all in search of the bejewelled dagger and hope to kidnap Mowgli who could lead them to the city ruins.
Soon, Mowgli and his group of wolf brothers along with Bagheera nab the Bandits and get rid of most of them. However, a few of them escape with Brydon and the group after kidnapping Kitty.
