Wow! People Can’t Believe This Giant Bat is Real

There’s a picture of a super big bat going around on the internet, and people are shocked that it’s real!

The internet is great for many things, like chatting with friends and watching funny videos. But sometimes, it shows us amazing facts we didn’t know before. And the more surprising the fact, the cooler it is.

Today, we’re looking at an animal that seems like it jumped out of a superhero movie: the giant golden-crowned flying fox.

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

— hi monica (@AlexJoestar622) June 24, 2020

In 2020, someone shared photos of this huge bat on X (which used to be called Twitter). The post said, “Remember when I told you about human-sized bats in the Philippines? Yeah, this is what I was talking about.”

The post quickly went viral. It got over 59,000 retweets and more than 226,000 likes. Even though it looks like it was photoshopped, people were surprised to learn that the pictures are totally real!

A fact-checking website, Snopes, looked into the photo. They said it really shows a bat that exists in real life. They couldn’t say for sure which bat species it was, but many people think it’s the giant golden-crowned flying fox. Sadly, this bat is endangered because of habitat destruction and hunting.

Snopes also mentioned that it might be another type of big bat, called the large flying fox.

Both of these bats are known as “megabats” because they are huge. And yes, the picture is real, so there are bats out there bigger than some babies!

Now, while the picture makes the bat look as big as a grown-up person, the body of a giant golden-crowned flying fox is actually only about one foot long. But their wings are super wide, stretching out to 5 feet 6 inches!

These bats live mostly in the Philippines. They stay away from people and like to hang out in untouched forests on steep hills.

The giant golden-crowned flying fox often roosts (hangs out) with another big bat, the large flying fox. Imagine having neighbors like that!

The large flying fox has a body that’s about 11-13 inches long. Its wingspan is a bit smaller, around 4 feet 11 inches.

One person from the Philippines replied to the original tweet, saying, “I can confirm this! They have huge wings, but their bodies are not that big, about the size of a medium dog. They only eat fruits and are really gentle.”

Another person added, “This is normal in the Philippines, Australia, and other Asian countries. They are harmless and only eat fruits. Without them, we wouldn’t have fruit trees.”

Someone else said, “At first, I was scared, but now I think I’d have a fruit basket ready for them just in case.”

Isn’t it amazing to learn about these giant bats? They might look scary, but they’re actually gentle fruit eaters!

Article Source: Vt