US tourist filmed running off with baby wombat flees Australia after visa threat

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Brisbane, Australia (CNN) — An American tourist who was reportedly filmed picking up and running off with a wild baby wombat fled Australia after officials threatened to cancel her visa in a firestorm of criticism over the incident.

A video shared widely on social media purports to show Sam Jones, who has 92,000 followers on Instagram, running with the baby wombat towards a car while its distressed mother chases after her.

It’s not clear when the video was shot, and neither is the location, but it was at night on what appears to be a country road somewhere in southeastern Australia, where most wombats reside.

Horrified Australians called for Jones to be deported, and on Thursday Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said his department was reviewing her visa, which would be canceled if she was found to have breached the conditions of her stay.

On Friday it was confirmed Jones had voluntarily left the country, with Burke declaring: “There’s never been a better day to be a baby wombat in Australia.”

Experts say the animals in the video were common wombats, the only one of three species of the Australian marsupial which is not threatened or endangered. But like all Australian native animals, they are protected by law.

CNN has reached out to Jones but has not received a response. A post on a new TikTok account purporting to belong to the Montana-based traveler said in part: “You have all gone crazy… the hate is currently too much for me to handle.”

The criticism came from the very top of Australian politics, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suggesting Thursday that Jones should try her luck with another Australian animal that was more likely to put up a fight.

“To take a baby wombat from its mother, and clearly causing distress from the mother, is just an outrage,” Albanese said.

“I suggest to this so-called influencer, maybe she might try some other Australian animals. Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.”

What the video showed

The video, reportedly deleted from an Instagram account that’s since been made private, and TikTok on a now-deleted account, shows a woman running across the road while holding a baby wombat.

“Just caught a baby wombat,” a man laughs off-camera, apparently referring to Jones.

“Look at the mother, chasing after her,” he laughs again, referring to the adult wombat, which chases the woman onto the road.

Shocked ecologists and wildlife carers said the sudden separation of the wombat and her baby, known as a joey, would have triggered stress reactions in both animals.

“Yanking a baby away from its mother, running away with it, and having the baby dangling in hands, is sort of pretty high up there in what not to do,” said Professor Barry Brook, an ecologist with the University of Tasmania.

Wombats do not typically attack humans, but they have incredibly strong claws they use to burrow into the ground. If used on human skin, they could cause major damage and infection, Brook said.

“It’s not a situation you or any other member of the public should put yourself in for both the animals’ sake and your own sake. And broadcasting this on social media to get likes and hits and so forth as an influencer is totally counterproductive,” he added.

Wildlife veterinarian Tanya Bishop, from the Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES), says the video doesn’t show the animals reuniting, or if the joey sustained injuries from being carried by its front legs.

“My concern is whether or not that joey had a temporary, painful, debilitating injury or something that could have been permanent,” she said. Bishop said wildlife officials are trying to determine where the video was shot.

According to Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, Jones responded to some of the criticism online before turning her social media channels private by saying the baby was “carefully held for one minute in total and then released back to mom.”

“They wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed,” she reportedly wrote. “I don’t ever capture wildlife that will be harmed by my doing so.”

Common wombats, the species seen in the video, are not considered vulnerable, unlike the southern hairy-nosed wombat, which is “near threatened,” and the northern hairy-nosed wombat, which is listed as “critically endangered” by the IUCN Red List.

Bishop said while they’re not endangered, common wombats are coming under increasing stress from busy roads, habitat loss and mange – a potentially fatal skin disease.

“All of our wildlife needs as much protection as we can give it,” said Bishop. “Over the 25 years that I’ve been a wildlife vet, I’ve seen so many species go from being least concerned to being endangered, threatened and potentially going to go extinct.”

Bishop’s advice to people who come across Australian wildlife: “Stay quiet and enjoy watching them from a distance.”

“Take video quietly if you want to; you’re going to see really beautiful interactions. And honestly, in the case of wombats, some of them are pretty funny, because baby wombats are very cheeky and naughty.”

CNN’s Angus Watson contributed reporting.

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