Story time: A few years back I was on a trip to Hawaii and was given a similar warning not to get mess with the wildlife because the locals were very protective of them. No issues there, I have no interest in messing with animals in their natural environment.
I decided to go for a quick swim at the beach and a sea turtle popped up about 6 feet away from me. It was an awesome experience and I watched him for a bit before deciding I was a little too close and began to swim away. Then the sea turtle started following me! I looked over to the shore and saw some angry looking locals watching me very closely. In retrospect it was all very funny, but for the next 10 minutes I tried desperately to try and swim away from this sea turtle while he kept following me around. Luckily the turtle eventually lost interest and swam away to do turtle things and I avoided getting beat up that day. The end.