Tortoise with species-saving sex drive returns to Galápagos
He will join a 1,800-strong tortoise population, at least 40% of which park rangers believe he has fathered.
"He's contributed a large percentage to the lineage that we are returning to Española," Jorge Carrion, the park's director, told AFP news agency. "There's a feeling of happiness to have the possibility of returning that tortoise to his natural state." The park service believes Diego was taken from the Galápagos 80 years ago by a scientific expedition.Around 50 years ago, there were only two males and 12 females of Diego's species alive on Espanola.Diego is currently in quarantine before his triumphant return to Española, considered one of the oldest parts of the Galápagos.
The indigenous species found on the Galápagos, including iguanas and tortoises, played a key role in the development of Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
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