Pinta Giant Tortoise Galápagos Extinct in 2012

According to the IUCN, the Pinta giant tortoise, a species of Galápagos tortoise native to Ecuador’s Pinta Island, was hunted by nineteenth century mariners for on-board food supplies. Twentieth-century fishers continued hunting the shrinking population. Then goats, introduced by humans to Pinta in 1959, destroyed the tortoises’ habitat. With the death of the last known Pinta Tortoise, Lonesome George (in captivity since 1972), in June 2012, the species went extinct.

Pinta Giant Tortoise