An American tourist faces further backlash over another re-emerged video after she posted herself taking a distressed wombat away from its mother.
The new footage showed Samantha Jo Strable handling an echidna, which appeared to be in the wild, and showing it off to her almost 100,000 followers last month.
She was captured stroking the echidna and feeling one of its paws before releasing the native species, which then scurries into the ground.
‘What kind of crazy creature is this?’ she says in the video.
The newly aired clip emerged one day after Ms Strable shared a since-deleted video of her interaction with a baby wombat to her Instagram page on Tuesday.
That footage prompted the Immigration Minister to announced an official investigation into whether the hunting influencer has breached her visa and can be deported.
Tony Burke told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday he ‘couldn’t wait’ for Australia to be rid of Samantha Jo Strable and expressed doubt she would ever return Down Under.
‘The department is now working through the conditions on her current visa and determining whether immigration law has been breached,’ Mr Burke said.
American hunting influencer Sam Strable (pictured) was previously seen picking up a seemingly wild echidna
‘Either way, given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I’ll be surprised if she even bothers.
‘I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return.’
Mr Burke’s comments were echoed by Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who both similarly blasted the American’s actions.
‘I suggest to this so-called influencer maybe she might try some other Australian animals,’ Mr Albanese said.
‘Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.
‘Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother. See how you go there.’
Senator Wong added: ‘It looked pretty dreadful, didn’t it? I will leave those sorts of questions [about whether the influencer should be deported] to Tony Burke and to the authorities, but, really, leave the wombat alone.’
‘I think everyone who would have seen that would have thought, leave the baby wombat alone. Leave it with its mum.’
An Instagram highlight reel posted last year showed various videos of Ms Strable interacting with native animals during her Australian travels.
One video shows her fishing on a beach.
Ms Strable grabbed a wild baby wombat from its mother on an unidentified road in Australia (pictured)
‘Hooked into a massiveee (sic) shark tonight. Ran 200+ yards and eventually managed to get off after a long fight Crap!’ the footage was captioned.
Another video appears to show Ms Strable pulling a small shark by the tail from a rock pool.
‘Little shark was ready to fight,’ the caption read.
Another photo shows her posing with a dead deer.
‘Got my first chital (Axis deer) [sic],’the post read.
‘Australia is full of epic, wild deer and harvesting this beautiful stag marks my third deer species.’
Ms Strable, a self-described ‘wildlife biologist and environmental scientist’, captured the juvenile wombat from the side of an unidentified road.
The footage showed Ms Strable running towards a car with the joey swinging in her arms as an Australian man laughed while filming the scene.
‘I caught a baby wombat,’ Ms Strable said as the joey shrieked and wiggled trying to free itself from her grasp as its frantic mother ran over toward them.
‘Okay, mum is right there and she is p***ed.
‘Let’s let him go.’
‘I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return,’ Mr Burke said of Ms Strable on Thursday
The man replied: ‘Nah, he’s all right.’
Seconds later, Ms Strable released the joey onto the side of the road where its mother was waiting.
The video quickly received a barrage of backlash, with many viewers reporting the video under ‘animal abuse’.
Ms Strable 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 mum,’ 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.’
The influencer has switched her accounts to private but the public outcry continued after the video was uploaded to TikTok and Reddit.
Sam Hunter is an American hunting influencer with almost 100,000 followers on Instagram
WIRES wildlife veterinarian Tania Bishop said the wombat may have suffered ‘permanent injury’ to its upper limbs and shoulders after it was roughly handled.
‘According to the Environment Protection and Biosecurity Act, you’re not allowed to unreasonably handle Australian wildlife unless you have a real belief that they are injured or requiring expert, trained care assistance or visionary assistance,’ she said.
‘The fact that they’re both laughing about it shows that there is absolutely no concern for the welfare of either the mother or the joey.
‘We don’t want to provoke a witch-hunt of course but is there a wider lesson here about public education on how to interact with our native animals. To be honest, I’m relieved that most people agree that that is inappropriate.’
Others called on the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to deport Ms Strable to her home state of 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 in: ‘Arrest. Fine. Deport. Ban.’
Ms Strable’s online presence is largely populated with images of her posing with the carcasses of animals she claims to have hunted and shot.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Strable for comment.
