Anyone who has been to the Galápagos Islands knows the story. Of the several different species of giant tortoise to evolve on the islands over the centuries, some were still around and some were extinct (mostly due to sailors taking them for food in the18th and 19th centuries). And then there was Lonesome George, the last remaining Pinta Island giant tortoise. His species is not technically extinct as long as he continues to lumber around his pen at the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora, but it will be when George (who is expected to live another fifty years or so, by the way) draws his last breath. Pretty depressing.

Well, there's a slight glimpse of hope. For decades, George has not shown any interest in mating: perhaps it was the long years of solitude on Pinta Island before being discovered in 1972. Two female tortoises of the Wolf volcano species have been George's companions for some time, but he had always shown little interest in them.

Recently, however, two sets of eggs have been discovered in the pen shared by George and his lady friends, leading hopeful scientists to think there might be a future for the Pinta Island giant tortoise after all. The eggs have been taken to an incubator, where the temperature will be manipulated to increase the chances that the hatchling tortoises will be female.

Once the eggs hatch, scientists will be able to determine if they are George's offspring or not. If they are, staff at the research station may begin cross-breeding them in order to achieve the purest possible Pinta Island strain. Such an undertaking would involve generations of tortoises and would probably take hundreds of years to complete.

Scientists are cautiously optimistic, and we'll keep you posted here at galapagosislands.com!!!