Australian ambassador faces furious backlash for eating an endangered turtle

The Australian ambassador to Cambodia has been forced to apologise for eating an endangered turtle.

Pablo Kang posted a photo of himself tucking into an Asian giant softshell turtle while on a trip to Cambodia where it is considered a delicacy.

But human consumption has led to the endangerment of the species, making the practice controversial.

Kang deleted the photo after it sparked a backlash.

The Daily Mail 

One Twitter user wrote:

Another added:

Kang apologised "to those who took offence".

He added that he does not "condone the harvesting of any endangered species".

The Asian giant softshell turtle, sometimes called 'Cantor's giant softshell' or even 'the frogface turtle', is so rare that it was believed to be extinct in the mid-2000s.

But new discoveries and recent conservation efforts mean that Cambodia is home to a giant softshell population once more. The species is still classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, however, with human consumption reportedly being a major contributing factor to its scarcity.