There is more good news for Lonesome George - until now the world's sole surviving Giant Galapagos Tortoise of his kind. Two weeks after one of the female tortoises sharing his corral laid nine eggs his second female companion has followed suit.
The eight eggs have been placed in an incubator alongside the three intact eggs from the first batch. It will be at least 120 days before we know whether the eggs have been fertilised.
The naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who has met George on several occasions, has advised caution over reports that eggs collected from his enclosure at the Charles Darwin Research Station might contain his heirs. Female tortoises can easily produce eggs without any intervention from a male.
However after decades of failed attempts to encourage Lonesome George to mate it is perhaps not surprising that the news has been so enthusiastically received.
Toni Darton, Chief Executive of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, said: 'Everyone who has been touched by Lonesome George's tragic tale will be keeping their fingers crossed. It's typical that you wait twenty years for any sign that George might mate and then both females lay eggs at once. We can now only wait and hope that he might have reached his sexual peak at last.'
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