American "Influencer" Goes Home: "There Has Never Been A Better Day To Be A Baby Wombat In Australia"

[hatrack]

A US hunting influencer who caused outrage in Australia after grabbing a baby wombat from its mother has left the country after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said immigration authorities were checking if she had breached the conditions of her visa. A government source told the Guardian that Montana-based Sam Jones left the country on Friday morning.

Burke, who is also the immigration minister, said on Thursday that he couldn’t “wait to see the back of this individual” and authorities were “working through the conditions” on Jones’s visa to determine “whether immigration law has been breached”.

That review was still ongoing when Jones made the decision herself to leave the country, the Guardian understands. Burke said on Friday: “There has never been a better day to be a baby wombat in Australia.”

Jones had shared footage on Instagram of herself approaching and then grabbing the wombat joey as it walked with its mother at an unknown location.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/14/sam-jones-baby-wombat-australia-backlash-leaving-australia