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.
Job done, prolific Galapagos giant tortoise Diego is being released back into the wild after being credited by authorities with almost single-handedly saving his species from extinction 🐢 https://t.co/90iBiKKFzk
— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 11, 2020
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.
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