Mum influencer mocked after boasting that she climbed into Taronga Zoo enclosure to retrieve children's hats following clash with another mother

A mum influencer has been mocked after claiming she climbed into an animal enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Zoo to retrieve her children's hats following a heated confrontation with another mother.

Diana Lewes shared a lengthy account of the outing, admitting she jumped a fence despite having 'no idea' what animal was on the other side.

But her attempt to turn the encounter into an amusing parenting anecdote drew criticism from social media users, who questioned why she hadn't simply asked a staff member for help.

'So your kids could have lost their mother for a couple hats,' one person commented.

Another commenter, who identified themselves as a zookeeper, urged the celebrity stylist to consider the consequences.

'Please alert staff next time as entering an animal enclosure not only endangers you but the animals,' they wrote.

The controversy began when Diana shared an Instagram carousel titled 'The Great Taronga Zoo Hat Incident', recounting what she described as a playground dispute that spiralled into an unexpected 'wildlife retrieval mission'.

According to Diana, she had enjoyed a 'beautiful day' at the zoo with her two children before stopping at a relatively empty playground.

She wrote that she sat on a bench and checked her phone for 'approximately 12 seconds' before her son called out for her to take his hat.

Before she could stop him, she claimed, he threw it from the play equipment, narrowly missing a double pram.

Diana alleged that another mother then confronted her, shouting: 'You idiot! There are newborn babies in that pram! Control your children!'

She claimed she tried to explain that she had barely had time to react, but the woman accused her of paying more attention to her phone than her children.

At that moment, Diana said, her daughter threw her own hat, which landed against a wheel of the pram.

'You cannot write this stuff,' she said. 

Diana alleged the other mother then picked up both hats and threw them into a nearby animal enclosure.

'She stormed over, snatched both hats off the ground, and with the fury of a thousand suns, catapulted them into an animal enclosure,' she wrote.

Diana claimed she asked the woman whether that had made her feel better before the argument continued.

She also admitted suggesting the woman needed a timeout and sarcastically calling her 'Mother of the Year' twice.

However, it was Diana's account of what happened next that prompted criticism.

After the woman allegedly left, Diana claimed she could hear something moving inside the enclosure but decided to climb in anyway.

'What animal? No idea,' she wrote.

'Was I supposed to be in there? Absolutely not.

'Did I climb the fence anyway?

'Unfortunately, yes.'

Diana said she was determined not to give the other mother 'the satisfaction of seeing me rattled', so she walked rather than ran.

'I calmly walked into an enclosure containing God knows what, collected two hats, and walked back out like this was a perfectly normal Thursday afternoon,' she wrote.

Her version of events received a decidedly less enthusiastic reception from some readers.

One commenter questioned why she hadn't approached a staff member to retrieve the hats, adding: 'Definitely wouldn't be proud of this.'

Others questioned whether the story had unfolded as described.

'There's no way this actually happened,' one Facebook commenter wrote.

Another suggested the account made the retrieval sound more dramatic than it may have been, comparing it to jumping into a gorilla habitat.

Diana did not identify which enclosure she entered or what animals were inside.

She concluded her account by claiming a nearby woman had witnessed the confrontation and expressed shock at the other mother's behaviour.

'Anyway, the children survived. The hats were recovered. No animals were harmed,' she wrote.

'And I think we can safely say that of all the animals I encountered at Taronga Zoo yesterday, the wildest one was in the playground.'

Taronga Zoo has been approached for comment.