Käanga was a white boy who was orphaned when his explorer family and other members of their expedition were slaughtered in the Congo. The boy, whose real name was never revealed, ran away. He was adopted by a local tribe of “ape-men.” They raised him to be one of their own, and he grew up to be one of them, forgetting all he knew of the “white man’s ways and talk.” But sure enough, as an adult, he got involved with some white foreigners. He fell in love with one of them, Ann Mason, who re-taught him English and helped him get in touch with the white settlers. Civilization, however, did not appeal to Käanga, so he and Ann remained in the jungle and were married, fighting for good against everything from bad animals to dinosaurs to witch doctors to Germans.