Green Sea Turtle

Chelonia mydas

Status: Endangered

Range: Atlantic and Pacific Ocean
Historian Mary Kawena Pukui tells a Hawaiian legend of a mystical sea turtle named Kauila. Her mother, Honupo-okea lay her very special egg to be warmed by the Hawaiian sun, and she dug a pond as a freshwater nest. When Kauila hatched, she lived in the pond and frolicked with the children who came to play in the water, tickling them with her bubbles, and sometimes transforming into a little girl herself.