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- Oct 23, 2009
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Been doing a lot of research lately and was very exited to see this. Here is the link to the site, but I will post info here too. This is from the Galapagos Conservation Trust. http://www.gct.org/sep08_1.html
Scientists in Galapagos who have been anxiously incubating the eggs of the world's only surviving Pinta Tortoise are hopeful that 14 of Lonesome George's eggs may be fertile.
Naturalists were initially sceptical when rangers from the Galapagos National Park on Santa Cruz Island found a clutch of eggs in the enclosure Lonesome George shares with two Espanola Tortoise females. Tortoises, like chickens, often lay eggs without any male input.
And now the rangers, who have taken care of the world's loneliest batchelor at the Charles Darwin Research Station since he was moved from Pinta Island in 1972, have found another three eggs in a nest in his enclosure.
These three, all of perfect size and weight were immediately transferred to incubators - two being coddled at a temperature of 29.5º C to hatch females and one at 28 ºC to ensure a male.
'This is such exciting news after all the years of waiting,' says Toni Darton, Chief Executive of GCT, which has been funding the tortoise breeding programme at the Research Station for many years.'
Scientists in Galapagos who have been anxiously incubating the eggs of the world's only surviving Pinta Tortoise are hopeful that 14 of Lonesome George's eggs may be fertile.
Naturalists were initially sceptical when rangers from the Galapagos National Park on Santa Cruz Island found a clutch of eggs in the enclosure Lonesome George shares with two Espanola Tortoise females. Tortoises, like chickens, often lay eggs without any male input.
And now the rangers, who have taken care of the world's loneliest batchelor at the Charles Darwin Research Station since he was moved from Pinta Island in 1972, have found another three eggs in a nest in his enclosure.
These three, all of perfect size and weight were immediately transferred to incubators - two being coddled at a temperature of 29.5º C to hatch females and one at 28 ºC to ensure a male.
'This is such exciting news after all the years of waiting,' says Toni Darton, Chief Executive of GCT, which has been funding the tortoise breeding programme at the Research Station for many years.'