Java

In the 2012 BBC series Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild, Sir David Attenborough returns to Selingan Island, now the site of a turtle conservation park. Recalling the moment he ate turtle eggs when he was first on the island in 1956, he explains: “Looking back it all seems rather shocking, and I hadn’t got a clue how to cook them. We had cheerfully added as much salt as if we were dealing with chicken's eggs.  The result, though no doubt very nourishing, wasn’t, I’m afraid, particularly delicious. Turtle eggs may not have been to my taste but the local people loved them, and they were an important source not only of nutriment but income.  The trouble was that the human population was growing so fast that the turtle eggs were being collected in huge numbers and turtles worldwide were in decline. In the decades that followed the Malaysian government stepped in to save their turtles. Harvesting the eggs was banned and a hatchery established on Selingan Island which people visit to see what’s going on.”