It’s hard to become famous at 100, especially when you’re a tortoise.
But Diego has done it – he’s now a legend for having had so much sex
and fathered so many children that he brought his species back to life.
Diego the Tortoise, who lives in the Galapagos Islands, won the
respect of the internet when it emerged that he fathered an estimated
800 children, which together make up a large part of his species, the
Chelonoidis hoodensis.But the fact that he needed to have so much sex at all – that he could
produce offspring that made up such a huge proportion of his kind – is a
depressing reminder of how challenged him and many of the other
tortoises in the Galapagos are.
Before Diego managed to repopulate his species, there were only two
males and 12 females on the island Espanola, which is the only place
that they are found. Scientists worried there weren’t enough of them in
such a large space to be able to reproduce, but Diego has managed to
have another offspring from his breeding centre on Santa Cruz Island –
via San Diego Zoo, where he lived before – to repopulate his species.
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