i thought this bit of news was really cool:
1) a subspecies of Galápagos tortoise is saved from the brink of extinction
2) they quarantine all the tortoises before reintroducing them back to the island
3) tho Diego is getting all the attention, there's another male Española Island tortoise named E5 who also had alotta sex and fathered alotta babies.
Article and video here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ex/4452412002/
and here: https://www.cnet.com/news/diego-the-...-playboy-life/Diego, a tortoise that saved his species by having lots of sex, is retiring and going home
A tortoise who had so much sex he helped save his species from extinction is retiring from his profusely procreative pursuits after fathering hundreds of offspring, wildlife officials say.
Diego the tortoise's active sex life and the 40-year captive breeding program for his species are coming to end after officials on the Galápagos Islands say the initiative was a success.
Diego, an Española tortoise, or Chelonoidis hoodensis, is native to Española Island, part of the famed archipelago studied by Charles Darwin.
In the mid-1960s, Diego was one of only 15 remaining tortoises of his species originally found on the island. Today, at more than 100 years old, he is one of 2,000, largely thanks to his sexual escapades.
"The island has sufficient conditions to maintain the tortoise population, which will continue to grow normally," Washington Tapia, director of the restoration program, said in a statement.
The 15 giant tortoises that were breeding in captivity, including Diego, will begin a quarantine process to ensure they do not bring invasive species back to their home island. Officials plan to release them back in the wild on Española in March.
Before joining the breeding program, Diego lived at the San Diego Zoo for 30 years. Galápagos officials say he is responsible for 40% of the tortoise population that now lives on the island.
The island's environment also has been restored in recent years to support the growing tortoise population, including the eradication of invasive species and the regrowth of cacti, a staple in the tortoise diet.
"There's a feeling of happiness to have the possibility of returning that tortoise to his natural state," Jorge Carrión, director of the Galapagos National Park, told the AFP.
The Española tortoise species is one of 15 giant tortoise species that have been identified across the Galápagos Islands. All are endangered or vulnerable or have gone extinct. In 2012, another famous tortoise – Lonesome George – died, marking the extinction of the Pinta Island tortoise.
and i like the bit of fun w/ this one: https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ies-800-babiesDiego the sex machine tortoise retires from the playboy life
After fathering hundreds of babies and saving his species, the big daddy of the Galápagos is ready for a rest.
Even the big daddy of tortoises gets to retire. Diego, the loverboy tortoise who helped save his species by making lots and lots of babies, will now be returned to the wild. The 175-pound, 35-inch (80 kilogram, 90 centimeter) Casanova has fathered at least 800 children, according to Agence France Presse. That's about 40% of the giant tortoise population in the Galápagos Islands. He's earned his retirement.
Diego was named for the San Diego Zoo, where he lived before being sent to the Galápagos to begin his breeding work in 1977. When he started his campaign of promiscuity, there were just two males and 12 females of his species alive on the island.
"He's a very sexually active male reproducer. He's contributed enormously to repopulating the island," Washington Tapia, a tortoise preservation specialist at Galápagos National Park, told AFP back in 2016.
And he has online fans. "When I was in Galápagos -- everywhere they celebrated and spoke of 'Diego' -- a true legend!" wrote one Twitter user.
Before heading to the island of Española from his current home at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island, Diego will undergo a quarantine period to make sure he doesn't spread non-native flora to his retirement home.
Sex superstar: how Diego the horny tortoise saved his species
There were just 14 of his kind surviving in the wild – until Diego arrived, drove the lady tortoises wild and fathered 800 babies
Name: Diego the horny tortoise.
Age: About 100.
Appearance: Roughly 5ft (1.5 metres) long, weighs 80kg (12.5st), leathery skin, long neck, large shell on his back.
Occupation: Sex god.
He doesn’t sound like a sex god. They say the same thing about Rod Stewart, another leathery old survivor who drives the ladies wild.
What is Diego’s secret? Ebullience. He has “a big personality and is quite aggressive, active and vocal in his mating habits”, according to the US environmentalist James Gibbs, who has played a leading role in the conservation of giant tortoises in the Galápagos Islands.
Remind me where the Galápagos Islands are. In the Pacific, 600 miles west of Ecuador. Read your Darwin.
I take it Diego has been part of the conservation effort. His part has been in every sense enormous.
Go on. In the 1970s, his species, Chelonoidis hoodensis, which is native to Española Island in the Galápagos, was down to its last 14 survivors in the wild. It was on its last stubby little legs, and threatening to follow several other giant Galápagos tortoise species into extinction.
Call for Diego! Exactly. He had been sunning himself in San Diego zoo in California for 30 years after being taken from Española for scientific research, but in 1976 was returned to a breeding centre on Santa Cruz, one of the larger islands in the Galápagos. Since then, Diego has produced an estimated 800 offspring, making him an international sex superstar and saving the species.
Singlehandedly? Not quite. There is another male tortoise called E5 who has fathered even more progeny, but because he doesn’t have a proper name and tends to be more discreet in his lovemaking he has been largely ignored. Branding is everything in the celebrity tortoise world.
What now for Diego? Much-deserved retirement. The giant tortoise population on Española has been deemed self-sustaining, the breeding programme on Santa Cruz is being closed down and Diego can go home to his native island after almost 80 years away.
Oh, how sweet. What about E5? Who knows? He’s not the story!
OK, well, how do giant tortoises mate? Noisily.
What’s their favourite chat-up line? “A word in your shell-like.”
How do they arrange dates? By shellphone.
Not to be confused with: Lonesome George, a Pinta Island tortoise who was the last member of his species, Chelonoidis abingdonii. Attempts to mate him with females of a similar species were unsuccessful and he died in 2012 at the age of 102.
Do say: “Enjoy a quiet retirement, Diego.”
Don’t say: “What about a spot on Love Island?”
Good Job Boys!!
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