As a twelve year old, he was an excellent climber, and on the ground could do many wonderful things which were beyond the powers of his birth society.
In many ways he is both different and similar, and they often marveled at his superior cunning, but in strength and size, he was only starting to train; for at twelve the great apes were fully grown, some of them towering over six feet in height, while little Tarzan was still a wild boy.
Yet such a preteen boy! Though twelve years old, he was fully as strong as the average man of thirty, and far more agile than the most practiced athlete ever becomes. And day by day his strength was increasing.