Celebrating Super Dad Diego
A portrait of a tortoise 'super dad' goes on show in my gallery in Thixendale in time for Father's Day. This giant tortoise, named Super Diego, is famous for saving his species by fathering 800 baby tortoises.
Super Diego's Legacy
Unlike the world-renowned Lonesome George, whose death in 2012 rendered his subspecies the Pinta tortoise extinct Super Diego's virility has assured the future of his species, the saddle-backed Espanola tortoise.
There were just 14 saddle back Espanola tortoises left in the world when Super Diego was introduced to a scientific breeding programme on the island of Sant Cruz in the Galapagos in 1977. At the time, two males were struggling to breed with the 12 females that together made up the entire Espanola population.
But Super Diego had no such difficulties. As a last ditch effort to save the species, he was shipped to the Pacific archipelago from a zoo in San Diego, California, where he had been living since the 1930s. So potent is the genetic strain he contributed to the breeding programme, he rescued the species by siring 800 baby Espanola tortoises.
After decades of service on Santa Cruz island, Diego was shipped back to the island of Espanola last summer to enjoy a quiet retirement. I think he deserves it don't you?
Painting Super Diego's portrait
I painted this rampant giant tortoise's portrait after visiting The Galapagos Islands in 2014 where I saw Super Diego slowly swagger about his accommodation at the Darwin Foundation Centre on Santa Cruz Island.
It was fascinating to see him. The Espanola tortoise has a shell shaped like a saddle and beneath the sweeping pommel is a gap that allows this particular subspecies of giant tortoise to stretch its neck up to browse on low lying branches. Whilst I was watching Super Diego, a keeper walked into his enclosure. Super Diego raised himself to his full height in surprise. Standing high on his legs with his neck stretched up his reach was easily six feet.
Tortoises of Santa Cruz
The island of Santa Cruz was entirely given over to tortoises. Farmers competing to attract wild tortoises, and the tourists they bring, worked hard to make their land as appealing as possible. I visited one with a number of muddy wallows for the tortoises to cool off in.
Although I knew the tortoises would be large, I wasn’t really prepared for how large. They really are huge. I knelt by the edge of a path until the day cooled off and the tortoises started to come out to graze. Two large males ambled past me. They were so close I could hear them creaking under the weight of their shells. Then one met another male heading in the opposite direction. Each began to try to lift its heads up higher than the other. They opened their mouths and hissed at one another, trying to gain dominance over the other.
I was so absorbed in sketching and photographing them I hadn’t noticed that I was kneeling in the path of a fire ant colony- until I felt the sting of their poison burn my legs, but at least I had got some great photographs to inform my paintings.
