Snapping turtles are not the kind of animal that most people think of as “cute” with their funnel-shaped noses, thick, warty bodies, and armored tails. Box turtles are cute. Sea turtles are adorable.

Requiem’s flapping flippers almost sounded like bird wings fluttering as Morgan Flannagan, a Georgia Sea Turtle Center hospital technician, pulled the green sea turtle from a rehabilitation tank.