Diego (giant tortoise)
Diego is a male Española giant tortoise ( Chelonoidis nigra hoodensis ( Van Denburgh , 1907)) that was born around 1915 and arrived at the San Diego Zoo in California before 1959 through a scientific expedition from the Galapagos island of Española . The animal got its name after its current whereabouts. In 1976, Diego came back to the Charles Darwin Research and Breeding Station on Santa Cruz Island , operated by the Charles Darwin Foundation . There Diego produced so many offspring with the few reproductive females that the species is no longer considered endangered. An examination of the genes of the population showed that of the 2000 or so members of this subspecies of the Galapagos giant tortoise, around 800 were descended from Diego. Diego last weighed 80 kg with a length of 90 cm. In March 2019 he was allowed to return to Española after completing the reproduction program. Approximately 1,800 Española turtles were brought to Española by early 2020; around 200 turtles were added from natural reproduction.
The Española giant tortoises, like all Galapagos giant tortoises, had been loaded onto ships as provisions for centuries. Introduced goats also ate their food, rats threatened their offspring. The subspecies could be detected and described in 1906, one specimen was caught on June 27, 1906 and brought to San Francisco in the local Golden Gate Park . The population had finally collapsed to two males and twelve females by the 1960s to 1970s. Three of the 15 subspecies had already disappeared. The attempt to save the subspecies Pinta giant tortoise ( Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii ) with the help of Lonesome George had finally failed with his death in 2012. Therefore, male specimens of the subspecies Chelonoidis nigra hoodensis were searched in zoos in order to carry out a reproduction program to save the threatened species. In earlier times around 5000 animals lived on the island.
supporting documents
- ^ Daniel Lingenhöhl: Diego, the true superhero , in: Spektrum.de, September 15, 2016 ( online ).
- ^ "Diego" from the Galápagos Islands. Giant tortoise is allowed to return home after saving its species , in: Spiegel, January 11, 2020 ( online ).
- ^ John Van Denburgh : Preliminary Description of Four New Races of Gigantic Land Tortoises from the Galapagos Islands , in: Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 1 (1907) 1-6, here: p. 3 ( online ).
- ↑ Santiago Piedra Silva: Sexploits of Diego the Tortoise save Galapagos species , in: Phys.org, September 16, 2016 ( online ).