Pictures of 'human-sized' bats spook netizens; Twitter says 'hell no'

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, July 3

Take a closer look—this is a real bat. A bat that’s almost the size of a human. 

A picture is being widely shared on the microblogging website showing a ‘human-sized’ bat hanging inverted from a roof in the Philippines.  

The picture was taken by a Twitter user, Alex, under the handle name, @AlexJoestar622.

He shared two pictures on his page of what looks like a giant bat. The creature is supposed to be a giant golden-crowned flying fox.

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.

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.

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