San Diego ZooImagine being hailed the hero of your species for having sex so much, you managed to save your kind from extinction.
For Galapagos tortoise Diego, that’s all before his morning blade of grass.
This particularly nature-driven reptile is over 100-years-old, and has fathered some 800 offspring, singlehandedly saving his species.
Scientists explain the prospective sixth mass extinction…
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His species were on the edge of extinction on the island of Española in the Galapagos islands, off the coast of South America.
Washington Tapia, a tortoise preservation specialist at Galapagos National Park, said:
He’s a very sexually active male reproducer. He’s contributed enormously to repopulating the island.
Diego is a Chelonoidis hoodensis, a species of Galapagos tortoise found in the wild only on Española.
50 years ago there were only two males and 12 females left on the Galapagos island, so Diego was moved to nearby Santa Cruz island from San Diego Zoo and then he got busy saving his species.
Super Diego the Galapagos Tortoise
#tbt We sent Diego home in 1977 on a mission to save his species. 1,700 offspring later, he earned the nickname "Super Diego."
Posted by San Diego Zoo on Thursday, 30 June 2016
The world is currently experiencing a ‘biological annihilation’ of its animal species at the hands of humans’, with extinction levels 1000 times higher than expected because of human activity.
A group of experts from the spheres of science told UNILAD how we’re in a sixth mass extinction the likes of which hasn’t been seen for 66 million years.
The rate of extinction is occurring at an alarming rate. Up to 200 species of plants, insects, birds and mammals are declared gone from this planet every 24 hours.
Global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles have declined by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012, according to research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But don’t take my word for it.
Professor of Animal Welfare & Ethics at University of Winchester, Andrew Knight, told UNILAD:
A mass extinction event is one in which more than 50 per cent of all species have gone extinct. The greatest tragedy of our time is that we’re wiping out all the other species we share the planet with.
There have been five previous mass-extinctions, but this time it’s different, Sailesh Rao, Executive Director of Climate Healers explains:
No other major extinction event in the past was caused by one species.
We’re the only species currently destroying the planet. We’re losing another three per cent [of species] per year.
At that rate, by 2026, it will be 100 per cent. Once they die off, we’re next on the line.
San Diego ZooIt’s time for humans to take action and pride in our planet so it can continue, instead of destroying it.
Diego is such a trooper, he saved his species. Maybe we can try and save ours, and all the others we’ve negatively affected.
