An American hunting influencer has been slammed after she was filmed grabbing a wild baby wombat and temporarily separating it from its distressed mother.
Outdoor enthusiast and hunter Sam Jones shared the since-deleted video to her Instagram account on Tuesday.
Ms Jones, who describes herself as a ‘wildlife biologist and environmental scientist’, captured the juvenile wombat from the side of an unidentified road.
The footage showed Ms Jones running towards her car with the joey swinging in her arms.
The joey’s mother was seen desperately chasing Ms Jones while an Australian man laughed as he filmed the scene.
‘I caught a baby wombat,’ Ms Jones said as the joey shrieked and wiggled trying to free itself from her grasp.
‘Okay, mum is right there and she is pissed,’
‘Let’s let him go,’ Ms Jones said.
American hunting influencer Sam Jones grabbed a wild baby wombat from its mother on an unidentified road in Australia (pictured)
‘Nah, he’s all right,’ the man replied.
Seconds later, Ms Jones released the joey into the grassy strip on the side of the road where its mother was waiting.
The reel received a barrage of backlash, with social media users reporting the video under ‘animal abuse’.
Ms Jones initially defended her actions, claiming she did not harm the joey and only held it for one minute.
‘For everyone that’s worried and unhappy, the baby was carefully held for ONE minute in total and then released back to mom,’ she wrote.
‘They wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed. I didn’t think I would be able to catch it in the first place, and took an opportunity to appreciate a really incredible animal up close.
‘I don’t ever capture wildlife that will be harmed by my doing so.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Jones for comment.
Ms Jones initially defended her actions claiming she only held the joey for a minute before deleting the video after she received a barrage of negative backlash (stock image)
Outraged Aussies continued to flood her social media platforms with negative comments, prompting Ms Jones to switch her accounts to private.
Despite Ms Jones’ attempt to remove the reel from social media, other users preserved and shared the video on both Reddit and TikTok.
‘As a wildlife rescuer specialising in wombats I can tell you… that this is an absolutely terrifying experience for mum and joey,’ one person commented.
‘It’s not just the entitlement, it’s the disrespect. 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,’ a second person wrote.
‘Revolting, both her and the bloke with her. how the f**k they think that mum trying to get bubs back, and that baby screeching in terror, is funny and ok is absolutely beyond me. soulless gutless heartless stuff,’ a third chimed.
Other social media users called for her to be reported to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and deported back to Montana.
‘This is heinous and they should both be charged,’ one person wrote.
‘Please report her to Australian Department of Home Affairs so they can ban her from ever stepping foot in Australia again,’ a second person commented.
A third added: ‘Hope she gets the maximum punishment for f***ing with wildlife’, while a fourth chimed: ‘Arrest. Fine. Deport. Ban’.
Ms Jones’ online presence is largely populated with images of her posing with animal carcasses she claims to have hunted.
