Angry 42kg wombat Bambam viciously attacks wildlife worker ‘ripping off’ part of her hand: ‘If he’d grabbed my throat I wouldn’t be here today’

An animal rescuer is recovering after being mauled by a 42kg wombat ‘torn off’ a piece of her hand.

Beth Nasser came across the marsupial named ‘Bambam’ at her Wombat Stomp nature reserve in the Southern Highlands of NSW earlier this month.

Without warning, the normally cute and cuddly creature lashed out.

“(The wombat) just came out from under me,” she said Yahoo News Australia.

“I must have put my hand out to defend myself because I was on the ground and he just ripped my hand apart.”

Animal rescuer Beth Nasser (pictured) had a piece of her palm ‘torn off’ by a 42kg wombat

Ms Nasser was rushed to a hospital in Canberra for emergency treatment.

She suffered multiple bites and bruises, with two huge bites on her leg and shoulder requiring stitches.

But the most significant bite occurred on her palm, exposing “muscle tendons and bone.”

Ms. Nasser, who lost almost all function of her hand as a result of the bite, compared the injury to an autopsy.

The brave wildlife rescuer has undergone plastic surgery and is still in hospital.

She believes the outcome of the meeting could have been worse.

“I’m quite experienced in dealing with wombats, which is the only reason I was able to get on top of him,” Ms Nasser said.

“If he had grabbed me by the throat, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Ms Nasser suffered multiple bites, the most significant of which was on her palm, exposing ‘muscle tendons and bone’

She insisted that the wombat Bambam (pictured) ‘did nothing wrong’ and was just ‘keeping his territory safe’

Mrs. Nasser had raised Bambam since he was a joey and small enough to fit in her hand.

She later released the wombat into the bushland surrounding her nature reserve.

More than a year after being in the wild, Mrs. Nasser came across Bambam in the bush.

Despite her injuries, she admitted that she had been “complacent” around the marsupial as he was only “patrolling and keeping his territory safe” and “didn’t do anything wrong.”

She has called on the public not to ‘demonise’ wild animals like Bambam, but to respect them.

The attack has not stopped the wildlife rescuer from working with wombats at her sanctuary, insisting the encounter was “not Bambam’s fault.”