Speculation that Lonesome George - until now the world's sole surviving Giant Galapagos Tortoise of his kind - might become a father is being greeted cautiously by Sir David Attenborough.
Speaking from his home in Richmond, the naturalist, whose BBC television series Life in Cold Blood captured the nation's imagination, advised caution over reports that eggs collected from George's enclosure at the Galapagos National Park could contain his heirs.
'We don't know if the eggs are fertile or if they have any connection with George at all. I would say the link is highly tenuous,' he said, warning that female tortoises can easily produce eggs without any intervention from a male.
Sir David has previously called George 'a living inspiration to us all to protect the remainder of the reptiles and amphibians of the world.'
George has been sharing his enclosure with two Espanola tortoise females for some years, since he was rescued in 1972 from Pinta Island off the Ecuador coast and brought to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz.
Three of the nine eggs are now being cared for in an incubator, but it will be 120 days before scientists will be able to confirm their parentage.
Toni Darton, Chief Executive of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, watched Lonesome George trying to mate while she was in Galapagos last year, but sadly the female walked away.
'For many years George's plight has demonstrated the need to conserve Galapagos to ensure other species aren't threatened with extinction - wouldn't it be wonderful if his own story could have a happy ending at last!' she said.
'This news is obviously causing great excitement, but it's a long shot that these eggs have been fertilised. Any offspring would only carry half the genes of a Pinta tortoise, and it would be generations before we could get anywhere close to a pure Pinta tortoise.'
The Galapagos Conservation Trust and the British Chelonia Group have been raising money for the transfer of up to 120 specially bred and tagged young Espanola tortoises - to date Lonesome George's closest genetic match - to be released on Pinta.
'There's an even greater incentive now to go ahead with the repatriation and bring the island back to a tortoise friendly state if George has managed to breed,' Toni Darton added.
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