A 100-year-old sex-crazed tortoise named Diego saved his entire species by fathering almost 40% of the offspring in the last 50 years. Diego is a Chelonoidis hoodensis which belongs to Galapagos species.
Diego has single-handedly saved his entire species which was at the brink of extinction as he fathered an estimated 800 offspring.
Around 50 years ago, there were only two male and 12 female Chelonoidis hoodensis tortoises on Espanola. But they lived too far to mate and reproduce. That is when Diego was brought from San Diego Zoo in California in 1977 to save his species.
Diego is about 90 cm long and 1.5 metres tall and weighs 80 kg. Currently Diego lives at a tortoise breeding centre on nearby Santa Cruz Island with six female tortoises.
Around six years ago scientists realised the Diego’s stamina when they conducting DNA tests on 2000 tortoises and found that at least 800 were fathered by him.
Alongside the other males at the breeding centre, Diego saved Chelonoidis hoodensis from extinction. He still remains dominant in his group.
Galapagos species (Image source: sandiegozoo.org)
According to Times Of India report, Washington Tapia, a tortoise preservation specialist at Galapagos National Park said, “We don’t know exactly how or when he arrived in the United States. He must have been taken from Espanola sometime between 1900 and 1959 by a scientific expedition.”
“We did a genetic study and we discovered that he was the father of nearly 40 percent of the offspring released into the wild on Espanola.”
“I wouldn’t say (the species) is in perfect health, because historical records show there probably used to be more than 5,000 tortoises on the island. But it’s a population that’s in pretty good shape — and growing, which is the most important,” he added.
