last La Pinta Island giant tortoise, known as Lonesome George, passed away. Both the pirates and whalers caused widespread devastation to the island’s wildlife, especially the Galápagos tortoise. Galapagos Islands is one of the few safe havens where wildlife is protected. In the 17th century, the island was used as a hiding spot for pirates, and in the 18th century as a stopping point for whalers. But, its bleak landscape meant that it was never colonised. It was discovered by the Spanish Bishop, Tomas de Berlanga, in the 15th century. It is also known as Abingdon Island, after the Earl of Abingdon.
Pinta Island was named after one of Columbus’s ships. His body was preserved at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and was eventually put on display at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island. Numerous attempts at mating George over the decades were all unsuccessful and he eventually dies in 2012. Whalers and pirates destroyed most of the tortoise population, leaving behind one survivor, who was called Lonesome George. However, the most famous resident of the island were the Pinta Island Tortoises a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise.
Pinta Island is also home to Galápagos hawks, fur seals, swallow-tailed gulls, marine iguanas, Galápagos fur seals blue-tailed boobies and sparrowhawks. This diminished the food for the native tortoises, and there was a successful movement to exterminate the goats. Lonesome George, a giant tortoise from the island of Pinta in the northern regions of the Galapagos Archipelago, was the last known survivor of the Pinta. Much of what was left was devastated by feral goats that were introduced to the island in 1950. Even though the island is just 60 square kilometres, it has some of the widest variety of wildlife in the area.ĭue to the many young volcanoes, the island has very sparse vegetation.
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