Brief break from busily filling in spreadsheets to bring very exciting news from today’s paper: Lonesome George may be about to become a father!

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but for newcomers, Lonesome George is a world famous conservation icon and is believed to be the last Pinta Tortoise in the world. George was taken in 1972 from Pinta, an island off the coast of Ecuador and has lived at the Charles Darwin Research Insititute in the Galapagos Islands ever since. Pinta tortoises were thought to have been wiped out by hunting and despite extensive searching, they have never found another Pinta tortoise on Pinta or any neighbouring islands. So, conservationists have been trying to get him to mate with tortoises from the neighbouring island of Isabela, but unfortunately George seems disinterested in mating and has made no progress in 30 years. A couple of years ago, he became the subject of one of the best books I’ve ever read on natural history – Lonesome George by Henry Nicholls – and I advise everyone to read it, it’s honestly brilliant.

Anyway, the point is, it was reported yesterday that one of the females in George’s pen has laid some eggs and it’s possible George is the father! It’s by no means certain, because tortoises can lay unfertilised eggs, apparently, but they have incubated three of the eggs and in about four months they should be able to tell. I will report back.

Full story at The Guardian.