It was originally called Abingdon Island by the notable British buccanneer and pirate, William Ambrosia Cowley. He based it's name on the 1st Earl of Abington. Cowley, or Captail Cowley as he was know, surveyed the Galapagos Islands between 1684 - 1686 on his circumnavigation of the world, publishing his first account in 1699. Today, it is better known by the name of Isla Pinta after one of the three ships sailed to the New World by Christopher Columbus.
Pinta is a shield volcano with numerous young cones and lava flows along NNW-trending fissures.
Lonesome George
Pinta Island was the original home of its most famous resident, a male tourtoise called Lonesome George. During the 1800s, whalers removed large numbers of Pinta tortoises as a food resource on their long journeys. By the early 20th century, the Pinta tortoise was likely ecologically extinct. Fishermen also opportunistically slaughtered tortoises through the mid 1900s. Goats were introduced to Pinta in 1959, eventually becoming a devastating scourge to the natural habitat. The feral goat population multiplied and exploded caused massive ecosystem degradation.
The sole known surviving Pinta tortoise, Lonesome George, was first spotted in 1971 and then taken into captivity the following year; no other live tortoise has been found since. He remained at the Tortoise Center on Santa Cruz until his death in 2012.
