‘Just caught a baby wombat’: American influencer suffers backlash after viral video

A video of an American influencer picking up and running away with a baby wombat after stealing it from its distressed mother has gone viral, with wildlife experts saying the woman’s behaviour is illegal.

In a since-deleted video posted to the Instagram account samstrays_somewhere, hunting influencer and biologist Sam Jones (also known as Samantha Strable) shared the now-viral video to her 92,000 Instagram followers. She has since made her Instagram account private following the intense backlash.

“Just caught a baby wombat,” the passenger of the video said before bursting into laughter.

“Look at the mother, chasing after her. Momma’s right there and she is pissed,” the passenger added, before filming Jones holding the terrified joey.

“I caught a baby wombat!” she said as the wombat can be heard hissing for its mum. “OK, mamma’s right there, and she is pissed. Let’s let them go,” she said before putting the baby back onto the ground.

2GB reported the video was captioned: “My dream of holding a wombat has been realised!” The caption also claimed the “Baby and mom slowly waddled back off together into the bush”.

It is unknown where the incident took place.

Hunting influencer and biologist Sam Jones removing the wombat joey from its mother. Credit: instagram.com/samstrays_somewhere

Dr Tanya Bishop, a wildlife vet at WIRES, the largest wildlife rescue and rehabilitation charity in Australia, said the organisation had been flooded with complaints from members of the public.

In Australia, all wildlife is protected under the Environment Biosecurity Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and Bishop said the video violated both of those laws. Animal cruelty laws vary from state to state.

Bishop said the wombats appeared to be of the common, bare-nosed variety, which are native to Tasmania, NSW and Victoria, with scattered populations in South Australia.

The way the wombat joey is being held in the video could injure it, she said.

“Most of their weight is in the back end of the body, so picking up even any young animal, even a toddler, they can experience growth plate damage, greenstick fractures, damage to ligaments and muscles, damage to the nerve plexus,” she said.

“But not only that, the distress of suddenly just being yanked away with force, away from the mother … would just be beyond distressing.

Jones picking up an echidna.Credit: Instagram

“To both the Joey and the mother, it’s been taken by a predator, which is why you see the mother showing such distress that you actually see the female coming right up to near the car door.”

On her now private Instagram account, the American influencer had other videos in which she posed with dead animals she had hunted, or held up wild animals, with many viewers taking to the comments to disparage the behaviour.

In one particular video, she was seen grabbing an echidna and panning it up-close to the camera. It was captioned: “Explore the fascinating echidna, a spiny yet adorable Australian monotreme” on TikTok.

National nature campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation, Jess Abrahams, said interfering with the joey could have a long-term impact on the wombats, and the human scent may even cause the mother to abandon her baby.

“To see this so-called hunting influencer literally take a young wombat from its mother and cause such distress to both the young and the parent was really disturbing,” Abrahams said.

“This influencer has clearly done this because she thinks it’s funny, or she’s trying to get likes on social media, but it’s just grotesque, selfish and completely unacceptable.

“This particular visitor has got a track record of harassing and interfering with wildlife. I hope she’s got the message from the backlash that she’s received online that this is not the way to treat wildlife anywhere in the world – especially not in Australia.”

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