Tortoise Tommy leaves owners shell shocked

So they were staggered when, five decades on, he turned out to be hiding a remarkable secret - he was in fact a she.

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Owner Peter Carlton couldn't believe his eyes when Tommy started laying eggs in front of him.

The 70-year-old spotted two white objects lying in the grass when he went outside to bring Tommy indoors for the night and realised they were eggs.

"I put him back on the ground and in the next half-hour he laid six more right in front of me," Mr Carter, a retired builder, said.

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"I was absolutely gobsmacked - I called my wife Mary to say Tommy was laying eggs, but she did not believe it either."

Tommy was bought from a pet shop in Derby by Mr Carlton's father-in-law for his grandchildren in 1957.

He said relatives had always assumed Tommy was a male tortoise because they had never seen him lay any eggs in the 50 years he has been their family pet.

Although they have owned up to four tortoises at any one time in the past, Tommy has been on his own in their garden, in Paignton, Devon, for the past 25 years.

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Mr Carlton, a grandfather-of-two, said: "Tommy was bought in Derby 50 years ago by my father-in-law as a pet for one of our children when they were much younger and still living at home.

"We've never known exactly how old a beast he is - he was already quite big when we got him in 1957.

"Although we had four tortoises at one time, Tommy has been alone for 25 years so there is no way the eggs can be fertile.

"The vet told us more eggs could even be laid later in the year. We just don't know why this has happened after all these years.

"I'm finding it hard to get used to the gender change - we will have to think about renaming her but we don't yet know what it will be."

According to experts, tortoises do not need a mate to produce eggs. Instead, like chickens, female tortoises can lay eggs alone.

Last night one expert from Paignton Zoo said it was likely that Tommy had laid eggs in the past but had perhaps hidden them in the garden and they had never been spotted by the Carltons.

"It is very unlikely that a female would suddenly start to lay eggs after so long," he said.

"The most logical explanation is that she has laid eggs before but they haven't been found. Tortoises will hide their eggs well."

Tortoises are herbivores that eat grass, weeds, leafy greens and fruit. Some have been known to live for over 150 years. The oldest tortoise on record was a 255-year-old reptile, named Clive, from the Indian Ocean island of Aldabra in the Seychelles. He died in March last year.