SUVA, Fiji -- Social workers in Fiji are trying to rehabilitate a 32-year-old man they say was raised by chickens, according to NBC.

As a young child, the man was locked in a chicken coop for several years by his grandfather after his parents died. He had little contact with humans and picked up the habits of the birds.

After escaping from the coop, the man was taken to a local hospital. No one knew how to treat him, so hospital workers locked him in a room and tied him to his bed for more than 20 years.

Now, doctors are trying to treat the man. They say he has no mental defects and agree his condition is from years of abuse and neglect.

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Man Locked In Chicken Coop As Child

"He had imitated or imprinted with the chicken," said Elizabeth Clayton who is rehabilitating the man. "He was perching, he was picking at his food, he was hopping around like a chicken. He'd keep his hands in a chicken-like fashion, and he'd make a noise which was like the calling of a chicken -- which he still has."

Doctors said the man has made remarkable progress and is now learning to walk and speak like a human.