Jan 14, 2020 23:00:00

The unequaled turtle 'Diego' who copulated and stopped the extinction of the species with one animal is retiring from active duty

It has been announced that the Espanola giant tortoise 'Diego ' will retire after the age of 100, leaving more than 800 offspring and saving the extinction of its own species with just one animal. Major media outlets such as CNN and Guardian have reported articles regretting Diego's retirement.

Parque Nacional Galápagos-Posted

https://www.facebook.com/parquegalapagos/posts/2501860959924937

Sex machine: prolific Galápagos tortoise saves his species | Environment | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/tortoise-saves-species-sex-drive-galapagos-

Diego the sexy tortoise saved his species from extinction. Now he's back for more --CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/11/americas/diego-playboy-tortoise-sex-life-galapagos-scli-intl/

The Española elephant (Chelonoidis hoodensis) is a large tortoise that inhabits the island of Española, which belongs to the Galapagos Islands. When the Galapagos National Park began its breeding program, only 15 wild Española turtles lived on the island of Española, literally endangered.

However, among those 15 animals was Diego, who had outstanding energy. Diego was over 100 years old at the start of the program, but Diego succeeded in producing more than 800 offspring with the assigned females. Since there are about 2000 giant tortoises produced by the entire program, about 40% of them are calculated to have been born by Diego's 'pregnancy'.

Following the birth of numerous offspring, the eradication of alien species, and the successful cultivation of cacti to feed on, Galapagos National Park authorities have decided to end the breeding program. The effort to save Diego's seeds has come to an end. Washington Tapia, who led the program, said, 'We used a variety of mathematical models to predict populations 100 years from now. In conclusion, we have recovered enough numbers to maintain them without continuing the program. I think that. '

It is believed that the cause of the decline in the Giant tortoise population was overfishing by pirates and whalers for food and oil in the mid-1800s.