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.”
Remember when I told y'all about the Philippines having human-sized bats? Yeah, this was what I was talking about pic.twitter.com/nTVIMzidbC
— Alex💫 (@AlexJoestar622) June 24, 2020
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:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7To1nMrHE_U]