Picture of 'human-sized' bat from Philippines goes viral, netizens are spooked

Picture of 'human-sized' bat from Philippines goes viral  |  Photo Credit: Twitter

At first glance, it looks like a stage prop or costume of a Batman-like character. But upon a closer look, one can realise it's a real bat that's almost the size of a human.

A recent picture shared on Twitter showing a 'human-sized' bat hanging inverted from a roof in the Philippines has taken the internet by storm.

The picture was taken by a Twitter user called Alex, with the handle @AlexJoestar622. He posted two pictures on his feed of what looks like a giant bat. The creature is supposed to be a giant golden-crowned flying fox.

Take a look:

Alex shared a screenshot of an earlier post that had the picture of the giant creature. "Remember when I told y'all about the Philippines having human-sized bats? Yeah, this was what I was talking about.” he wrote on Twitter on June 24.

Many users reacted to the pictures saying they had no idea that such a mammal existed.

Alex's tweet has now garnered over 2.63 lakh likes and over 1.05 retweets. The pictures have been widely circulated on Facebook and Instagram as well.

A bunch of users commented on the post and tried to share information about the giant mammal. However, many are still confused about whether the animal is a bat or something else.

The giant golden-crowed flying fox was mentioned by many users, but no one was able to verify it. 

“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,” a user explained.

“There are smaller ones hanging around trees and sometimes under roof eaves of some houses back in the provinces, these bigger ones hang around taller trees (but we rarely see them), at least the ones near our old house but last time I saw one in person was almost five years ago,” he added.

As of now, it remains unclear whether the picture is actually of a giant golden-crowed flying fox, a species of megabats

The giant golden-crowned flying fox is also known as the golden-capped fruit bat. It is a species of megabat, endemic to the Philippines. The creature is primarily frugivorous, meaning it consumes several kinds of fruits and figs.

Much like many bat species, the giant golden-crowned flying fox has also been investigated as a source of emerging infectious disease.