A photo of a gigantic bat has gone viral after social media users believed it to be 'human-sized' - but it may not be what it seems.
The images were shared on Twitter, showing an enormous bat hanging upside down from the roof of a building, looking like it has flown straight out of a horror film.
The post has racked up thousands of likes, with many people claiming the bat is "taller than me", the Mirror reports.
The post is captioned: "Remember when I told y'all about the Philippines having human-sized bats? Yeah, this was what I was talking about."
While the creature pictured - thought to be a giant golden-crowned flying fox - is considered a megabat, it's not as big as it looks.
The species of bat can have an impressive wingspan of up to about 5.6ft - which is very much human-sized and very much terrifying - but their bodies are estimated to be in the 1-2ft range.
Photos of the bat, which is native to the Philippines, may make it appear as though it could pick you up and fly away but they actually only weigh about 1.2kg.
It does boast the longest documented forearm length of any bat species, measuring in at 8.5 inches.
The viral post makes clever use of perspective, placing the bat far closer to the camera than the background - which was more than enough to give some people nightmares.
One said: "Just imagine this bat waking up and flying straight at you. I'd leave the country."
Another replied: "THERE IS A SPECIES OF BAT TALLER THAN ME. I KNOW ITS VEGETARIAN AND ALL BUT IM ACTUALLY SCARED."
Others tried to calm the panic, as one person explained: "Heya, from the Philippines here. I can confirm this, they have a huuuuuge wingspan but the bodies are not really that big, more or less like the same body as a medium (bit smaller) sized dog.
"And yeah they only eat fruits, guavas most particularly. They're really gentle too."
Some saw no problem with the creature, and said: "He looks like he gives great hugs and is very polite.
