Unbelievable photo of ‘human-sized bat’ isn’t actually fake

A photograph has emerged that shows what looks to be a human-sized bat in the Philippines.

Look at that thing, it looks like the bat is the size of a human, it's pretty damn terrifying.

I certainly wouldn't want to spot that thing in a darkened alleyway, would you?

What's worse, is that the picture you can see isn't a fake. In fact, it's 100 percent real.

Twitter/@AlexJoestar622

However, there's actually no need to be afraid of this creature.

Whilst no tricks and editing has been applied to the picture, it is taken from such a perspective that it makes the bat look about five feet tall.

It's not really that big.

But that doesn't mean it's not still an absolute unit of a bat - or something you'd want hanging in your bedroom.

The picture shows the creature - which, if you're interested, is a giant golden crowned flying fox - hanging upside down, as they tend to do, in the outbuildings of someone's house.

It was shared on Twitter by user @AlexJoestar622, who said: "Remember when I told y'all about the Philippines having human-sized bats? Yeah, this was what I was talking about."

So, whilst calling this bat 'human-sized' is something of a reach, it is certainly one of the world's largest bats.

Speaking of reach, this bat does actually have a wing-span that could be thought of as human-sized, because their wings can be up to five and a half feet wide.

However, the actual body of the flying fox, which looks massive, is probably only around one foot tall.

Twitter/@AlexJoestar622

Instead of showing us a secret South East Asian world of the gigantic, this picture is actually just a clever example of forced perspective.

That's where you take a picture in such a way that makes something seem massive, or really small, when it is actually just normal sized and in a slightly different perspective.

It was used heavily in The Lord of the Rings trilogy to make the hobbits seem tiny, when they are actually probably the same size as the actors they're standing close to.

As for the giant golden crowned flying fox, there's a serious issue here, as they're currently classed as an endangered species as a result of deforestation and poaching for food.

What's more, even if it was massive, you'd have nothing to fear from this gentle giant. They are completely herbivorous, eating mostly figs and occasionally chowing down on some leaves.

They are exclusively found in The Philippines, and were initially discovered in three subspecies, but one has since gone extinct.