# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DPhG3OMkz8x
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/35423796-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/d4555eab0a.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-10-07T18:00:46.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

A 100-year-old Galapagos giant tortoise intercourse machine named Diego repopulated his species by sowing his tortoise seed and cranking out an estimated 800 tiny tortoise babies, Phys.org reported.⁠
⁠
Just 60 years ago, the Chelonoidis hoodensis tortoise—native only to the island of Espanola in the Galapagos—was dangerously close to extinction, with less than 20 left in the total population. But that was before Diego embarked on his decade-spanning intercourse-fest.⁠
⁠
Thanks to his endless well of passion and the helping hands of some specialists at a Santa Cruz Island breeding center, Diego—the dominant of three males selected to help rebound the population—has fathered around 40 percent of the current wild tortoise population in the area.⁠
⁠
_____⁠
⁠
“He’s a very active male reproducer,” Washington Tapia, a tortoise preservation specialist in the Galapagos, told AFP in 2016. “He’s contributed enormously to repopulating the island.”⁠
⁠
Diego was born in the wild in the early 1900s, but was living in captivity in the San Diego Zoo before some unnamed tortoise expert saw him in 1976 and said, That guy can probably be active, let’s get him back home and put him to work.⁠
⁠
The rest, as they say, is history. With Diego’s help, the tortoise population in Espanola is now up to around 2,000.⁠
⁠
“I wouldn’t say [Diego’s species of tortoise] is in perfect health,” Tapia reportedly said to AFP. “But it’s a population that’s in pretty good shape—and growing, which is the most important.”⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
⁠
#tortoise #gianttortoise #biology #science

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 6,613
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 61

## Tags

science, gianttortoise, tortoise, biology

---
Copyright (c) Gondola