A photo of a bat some are describing as being the size of a human is floating around the internet these days and in typical misleading fashion. It is a big bat and it is a real photo, but human-sized? Not quite.
Someone with the Twitter handle of @AlexJoestar622 posted the photo the other day with the comment “Remember when I told y’all about the Philippines having human-sized bats? Yeah, this was what I was talking about.”
The scary creature in question is a giant golden-crowned flying fox, a.k.a. a golden-capped fruit bat, a species of megabat endemic to the Philippines. It is one of the largest bat species in the world, weighing up to 3.1 pounds but with a wingspan that can stretch to 5.6 feet.
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“I can confirm this,” replied @louistenantIV of the Philippines in a Twitter reply about the photo. “They have a huuuuuge wingspan but the bodies are not really that big, more or less like the same body as a medium (or a bit smaller) sized dog. And, yeah, they only eat fruits, guavas most particularly. They’re really gentle too.”
Another Twitter user commented, “They are mostly all wings.”
And to show the authenticity of the photo itself, a YouTuber posted this video showing the same bat:
