When his species was on the verge of disappearing, Diego did what no caped hero could do: he had children. Lots of children. 800, to be precise 👀
This giant tortoise, more than 100 years old, became the father of hundreds of hatchlings and helped save his species when only 14 Española Island giant tortoises remained in the Galápagos.
For decades, scientists worked on a breeding program to prevent total extinction. And that was where Diego became a true legend, because a huge portion of the new tortoises born ended up having his DNA.
With those numbers, the nickname “sex monster” clearly didn’t come out of nowhere. While everyone had almost given the species up for lost, Diego showed up as if to say: “don’t worry, I’ve got this”. And well… he really did take care of it.
The most impressive thing is that the program worked so well that the population managed to recover until it reached thousands of individuals. In other words, he literally helped give an entire species its future back.
And honestly, not many animals can say they saved their own simply by being extremely successful at producing offspring.