Unverified news and countless social media posts have linked the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic with bats. Amid the debate over the origin of the virus continues, a picture of a "human-sized" bat from the Philippines is going viral on the internet.
A Twitter user posted a picture and wrote," Remember when I told y'all about the Philippines having human-sized bats? Yeah, this was what I was talking about."
Meanwhile, the "human-sized" bat hanging from the ceiling left the netizens shocked. Later, the Twitter user apologized for using the word "human-sized" in his tweet as the wingspan of the bat is 5.58 and not its height.
"Let me clear things up for a bit
1. It's a 6 year-old human-sized or like about that of a small dog (check the replies)
2. 5.58 is the wingspan, not it's height
3. I apologise for using "human-sized." It was how it was referred to me for a very long time and I believed it," he wrote.
"Because I saw pictures of them being that big (there are pictures in the replies)
4. It's endangered
5. This pic in the tweet above this one is already old
6. The purpose of this tweet was to share stuff about what I thought I knew. I'm reading the replies and I'm educating," he added.
Here are some reactions from the Twitterati:
Apparently, the picture is of the endangered golden-crowned flying foxes which are found in the Philippines. They aren't known to be a threat to humans. Their diet mostly consists of figs and other fruits. The giant golden-crowned flying fox is endemic to the Philippines.
It is a forest specialist, occurring mostly at elevations from sea level to 1,100 m. It prefers areas uninhabited by humans. They also like to be close to agricultural fields, but only in undisturbed forest areas
