This Sex Mad Tortoise Saved His Entire Species
Not all heroes wear capes, some of them wear shells.
I’d imagine if helloU’s very own Alfie Powell was to cast himself as some kind of superhero he’d take inspiration from Diego the Galapagos’ giant tortoise. Except Alfie would be saving the human species, of course, not tortoises, that’d be inappropriate and as I continue to type away and go wildly off topic my suspicion that this opening won’t make it past our editor is ever increasing.
On to Diego. Diego has a helluva way with ladies, he’s 100 years old and has fathered over 800 offspring. That’s eight a year. Yes, they hired me for my maths skills too. But eight a year, that’s insane. Diego was first discovered in California, although it’s unknown how he came to be in America. I’m guessing he probably seduced an air hostess back in the fifties. But he was moved back to the Galapagos Island’s in 1976 where he was placed into the Captive Breeding programme, and the big guy hasn’t looked back since.
Here’s Diego on the prowl, looking for another bae.
AFP50 years ago, when Diego would have been reveling in the happy go lucky swinging sixties, there were only two males and twelve females on the Galapogos island. Due to the fact that they were spread so far apart, breeding was proving to be very difficult. It probably didn’t help that tortoises aren’t exactly known for their ground-covering speed.
Washington Tapia, a specialist at the National Park where Diego puts his feet up, told AFP:
“We did a genetic study and we discovered that he was the father of nearly 40 per cent 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.”
If I had better Photoshop skills I’d put Diego into an episode of Jeremy Kyle, with the banner running along the bottom reading “I’m 100 years old and have 800 kids, I can’t even remember their names.” If anyone does have the skills, feel free to do it and I’ll pop it in the bottom of the article.