A US influencer has sparked backlash and calls for her deportation from Australia after she grabbed a baby wombat from its mother.
Sam Jones, who claims to be a “wildlife biologist and environmental scientist” posted a video to Instagram showing her taking the marsupial and then running across the road dangling the joey, while its mother gives chase.
An Australian man in the since-deleted video can be heard laughing and says, “Look at the mother, it’s chasing after her!”
“I caught a baby wombat!” Jones says in the video, as the baby makes distressed noises.
“OK mama’s right there and she is p***ed, let’s let him go,” she adds, before walking across the road to release the baby.
Australian radio station 2GB reported that she captioned the video: “My dream of holding a wombat has been realised! Baby and mom slowly waddled back off together into the bush.”
While she added in the caption that “the baby and mum were safely united”, the video drew swift condemnation. Jones, who has more than 100,000 followers combined on TikTok and Instagram, has since deleted the clip, and has made both her social media accounts private.
Australian native animals are protected by law, and wildlife rescue organisation Wires confirmed to News.com.au that such an act was illegal.
WIRES Wildlife Vet Dr Tania Bishop told the news outlet that the joey looked about eight months old, an age where it would be relying on its mum’s protection “at all times”.
Dr Bishop said the situation would have been distressing for both mother and joey, but Jones could have also injured the baby by the way she carried it.
“When she’s running, it’s not supported underneath, and wombats are incredibly solid, especially in their back end, so there’s every chance she could have fractured the upper humerus, or the top of the arms, or caused damage to the shoulders,” she said.
The vet also pointed out the influencer potentially put the mother in harms way, as she could have been hit by a car running across the road.
In a Reddit thread on the video, users said they were “depressed” and angry to see this behaviour.
One pointed out that if the wombat was a Northern Hairy-nosed wombat, it would be on the protected species lists and she could face even tougher penalties for handling it, including a fine of up to $330,000 (£160,500).
“Every Aussie knows. You see baby wildlife with its family you leave it alone. They aren’t toys for your amusement,” one user said in the subreddit thread on r/Australia.
“It’s not just the entitlement it’s the disrespect. That her first instinct is not awe and gratitude to see this animal in the wild but to rush in to greedily exploit the moment for personal gain no matter the trauma it causes to anything and anyone else, it’s such an indictment on her character. Absolutely shameful,” another said.
A third said: “Oh my god. Why do people feel the need to just insert themselves in nature and desecrate it? Leave them be! This poor mother is trying to protect her young. Disgusting behaviour.”
Other users called for her to be deported and banned from Australia.
“Arrest. Fine. Deport. Ban.” One user said.
Another added: That poor wombat. Australia needs to do more to kick these morons out.”
