National Geographic Channel Takes You In The Womb With Puppies And Kittens And Their Wild Kingdom Relatives

Enter a World Where Muzzles, Barks, Paws and Purrs Are Born, and See Real-Time 4-D Ultrasound Images of Kittens, Lion Cubs, Puppies and Wolf Cubs

In the Womb: Dogs premieres Sunday, January 4, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT
In the Womb: Cats premieres Sunday, January 4, 2009, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

Both kittens and puppies take just 63 days to go from embryo to adorable house pet - a transformation nothing short of remarkable.  In just about nine weeks' time, each newborn in effect recreates a micro version of the evolutionary cycle both species have undergone over millennia.  Now the National Geographic Channel (NGC) opens a window into the private world where traces of fearsome lions and wolves are still evident during the embryos' transformation into cuddly kittens and puppies.

On Sunday, January 4, 2009, NGC premieres the two latest installments of its critically acclaimed In the Womb series - In the Womb: Dogs, followed by In the Womb: Cats - featuring never-before-seen in utero images of cats and dogs and their wild kingdom relatives.

Using state-of-the-art visual effects and real-time 4-D ultrasound imagery, both one-hour specials vividly trace the journey in the womb.  First, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, In the Womb: Dogs chronicles the fetal development of one wolf and three different dog breeds - mastiff, golden retriever and Chihuahua - including some of the first 4-D ultrasound images of a Chihuahua fetus.  Then, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, In the Womb: Cats follows the in utero journeys of a house cat and a lion, showing - for the first time ever on television - 4-D ultrasound images of a lion embryo and a cat embryo running in place and stretching in the womb.  


In the Womb: Dogs

Both dogs and wolves sometimes have false pregnancies.  In dogs they no longer serve a practical function, but in wolf packs, they preserve the hierarchy among the females.  Only the alpha female wolf is permitted to become pregnant, and the others undergo false pregnancies to subdue their own mating urge, ensuring that the alpha female has no competition.  Another similarity is that, up until day 35, both female dogs and wolves can reabsorb fetuses into the uterine wall, an unusual survival technique during times of scarcity in the wild.

Dogs are the most diverse species on earth, thanks to selective breeding.  There are 400 breeds of dogs, while there are only 40 breeds of cats.  As with cats, by day 21 after conception, developmental genes are determining traits that will distinguish dogs from wolves, and one dog breed from another.

Dogs - Day 30

By day 30, the basic body plan is in place, as well as one particular canine characteristic: color blindness.  Both dogs and wolves see everything in a bluish-yellow shade.  The color-blind vision helps wolves hunt at night.  Their eyes also have special receptors that respond to rapid movement so they can spot and pounce on prey.  By day 36, the possibility of reabsorbing a fetus has passed, and the dog and wolf litters continue growing.  By day 39, the ears are distinctive.  Floppy ears are a sign of the submission humans have bred into dogs, but erect wolf-like ears persist in a few species, including the Chihuahua.

The snouts develop relatively late, but surprisingly, the size of the snout is not key to a canine's extraordinary sense of smell.  Using an endoscopic camera, In the Womb: Dogs takes you inside a dog's snout, where a spongy membrane with 200 million scent-detecting cells picks up vital information.  By comparison, in humans this membrane has only 5 million cells.

Dogs - Day 55

After 55 days of development, the wolf, mastiff, golden retriever and Chihuahua all exhibit traits particular to their breeds in terms of snout, paw size and even litter size.  Their sizes are beginning to diverge now, but nothing compared to adult life.

And it's not just body size that's diverging.  Their brains are diverging too.  Wolves need big brains for coordinated pack hunting.  Fighting for scraps from human dumps needs a lot less cunning.  Since the brain is a ferociously expensive organ in terms of the energy required to fuel it, it is thought that natural selection in domestic dogs favored smaller animals - and a smaller brain.  As a result, domestic dogs have become less alert to their surroundings compared to their wolf ancestors in the wild.  Researchers still cannot agree whether a smaller brain makes dogs less intelligent than wolves.  It may simply be that they are intelligent in different ways.  Wolves are skilled at the complexities of living and hunting in a pack.

Dogs - Day 63

Sixty-three days after the eggs were fertilized, the puppies are about to undergo the most traumatic journey of their lives - into the outside world.  Giving birth can take as little as an hour or as long as 36 hours.  The mother tries to shred her bed.  This is probably an echo from the wild past, when dogs would dig a den to give birth.

Wolves give birth in an underground den - a safe, warm environment in which the pups will grow for the first four to six weeks of their life.  They are physically strong for their size and can crawl about and struggle with each other for the best teats to suckle.  Amazingly, it's taken the same amount of time to produce all these newborns, wolf and dog.

Around seven days after birth, the dogs' eyes open for the first time, although they stay blind for a further three days.  After two weeks, their ear canals open.  And after 35 days, their hearing will be far more acute than our own.The skulls of newborn puppies and wolf cubs all look very much alike, and are in similar proportions to their bodies.  But the wolf skull will continue to grow for another eight months - far longer than the dogs' - to accommodate its larger brain.


It's a remarkable journey - from single cell to man's best friend in just 63 days.  It opens up a unique view of life inside the womb, where pregnancies can be false, fetuses reabsorbed and where we see unborn puppies panting and running.  Even more astonishing is how this journey mirrors the millennia of evolution and human intervention that turned the wolf... into a dog. It's a reflection of humans' amazing ability to tame the wild - and mold it to our purpose.  A 15,000-year journey, relived in just 63 days in the womb.


In the Womb: Cats

In the Womb: Cats begins with the painful reality of feline mating.  For both female cats and lions, getting pregnant can be excruciating.  The male sex organs are barbed with more than 100 tiny hooks made of the same fibrous protein found in nails and claws.  These scrape against the female sex organs, releasing hormones that trigger ovulation.  Lionesses mate up to an astonishing 100 times a day, with one select member of their own pride, in order to insure impregnation.  Domesticated cats can mate with a wider variety of partners, and that can sometimes lead to one litter from several fathers.

Once the embryos implant themselves into the uterine lining, the uterus contracts and expands several times, spacing out the embryos evenly so each member of the litter has room to grow.  Until they are about 3 weeks old, most mammal embryos are hard to distinguish from one another, but then organs and limbs develop differences that separate animals from humans.

Cats - Day 28

By day 28, both cat and lion embryos are growing paw pads with extra hairs to allow them to detect the slightest vibrations of prey anywhere nearby.  Their ears are also a marvel of engineering.  Three inner ear structures are arranged perfectly in three dimensions to give cats that extraordinary sense of balance, so they can always orient themselves when falling to land on their feet.

Cats - Day 38

By day 38, cat and lion fetuses can be seen practicing skills needed in their life to come.  In the Womb: Cats features 4-D ultrasound technology that shows them stretching, scratching and even appearing to run and chase imaginary prey.  However, for all their similarities, cat and lion embryos do have necessary differences.  Lion embryos, for example, swing in a hammock-like structure within the mother's womb, which has a thicker lining than domestic cat wombs.  Scientists speculate that because lionesses are still active and hunt while pregnant, the extra padding acts as a shock absorber for the fetus.  

Cats - Day 50

At day 50, the cat is only 13 days from birth; while the lioness is less than halfway through her 110-day gestation.  The physical differences in our lion and cat are now striking.  Determined by their genes, these differences allow scientists to investigate how long ago their evolutionary paths diverged.  Their common ancestor is unknown, but in genetic studies biologists have calculated that all members of the cat family originated from an individual that lived in Asia 10 million years ago. From this ancient forbear, cats and lions branched out as they evolved and adapted to their particular environments.

One obvious difference that evolved with the development of domesticated cat breeds:  Cats purr and lions roar.  The difference lies in a series of bones that connect the tongue to the larynx, or voice box.  In lions, the bones are long and elastic, so when they roar, the air vibrates within a bigger cavity with a deep, rich sound.  Cats don't have this ability and so they purr, which actually releases endorphins and relaxes them.

Cats - Day 63 / Lions - Day 110

At 63 days, a litter of seven deaf and blind kittens are born, but within six weeks' time, they are leaping and pouncing like their wild kingdom relatives.  At 110 days, the lioness looks for a safe place to give birth and, soon after, a litter of three lion cubs are born.  Unlike kittens, they can hear right away and gain their sight quickly.  After six weeks, they are big enough to join the pride and assume their role in the wild.

The domestic cat has adapted to the complexity of man's home; the lion to the challenges of the open savannah.  Every whisker, every feature, every joint and limb is sculpted by the world we call the womb.
 

In the Womb: Dogs and In the Womb: Cats are produced for the National Geographic Channel by Pioneer Productions.  For Pioneer Productions, executive producers are Simon Andreae and Andrea Florence and director/writer is Lorne Townend.  For the National Geographic Channel, executive producer is Jenny Apostol, senior vice president of special programming is Michael Cascio and executive vice president of content is Steve Burns.