His race was thought to be extinct until he was seen in late 1971 by some passing visitors. The sole known surviving Pinta tortoise, Lonesome George, was spotted in 1971 and taken into captivity the following year no other live tortoise has been found since.

Everyone knows the sad story of Lonesome George, last of the Pinta Island Giant Galapagos Tortoises. The giant tortoises of the Galapagos helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution after he visited the islands in the 1830s, on his five year voyage aboard HMS Beagle.Īt the time, the super-sized reptiles were common, but the introduction of wild goats, which ate the vegetation that formed their diet, and the hunting habits of passing sailors – left them on the brink of extinction. Pinta Island Has Tortoises Again by adminblog. He was discovered in 1972, and brought to the Charles Darwin. Genetic testing has been carried out to try to find further hybrids among the population there. Lonesome George is the last member of the Pinta Island subspecies of Galapagos tortoises.

His death marks the end of the purebred Pinta Island tortoise, but there is hope that they will survive in some form: at least one first-generation descendant of the subspecies has been found at the Wolf volcano on neighboring Isabela Island. In 1972, the last survivor of the Pinta subspecies of giant tortoisenamed Lonesome Georgewas moved to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island. His plight as the only known member of his subspecies led to a series of ill-fated attempts to provide him with a mate.īut despite the best efforts of conservationists – and the presence of two female giant tortoises from a close subspecies sharing his enclosure at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz – George remained a solitary creature. George became a symbol of the Galapagos Islands after he was found on Pinta Island by biologist Joseph Vagvolgyi in 1971. A post-mortem examination will be carried out to ascertain the cause of death, as although he was old by human standards, Lonesome George was not considered old for a giant tortoise – the animals can live to around 200 years of age.

Last pinta island tortoise