Is this giant ‘human-sized bat’ real or an elaborate hoax? The truth will shock you.

Ever stumbled upon a photo so wild it makes you double-check reality? Picture this: a gigantic bat, hanging from a roof like it’s plotting some nocturnal mischief—only this isn’t your average night creature. Nope, this one looks downright human-sized, casting a shadow large enough to make you wonder if man-bats are actually real. But hold up—before you start envisioning Batman’s new nemesis, here’s a twist: while the photo is legit, it’s sneaky. Forced perspective tricks our eyes, making this flying fox look like it’s auditioning for a role in a horror flick starring giant critters. So, how big is this “beast” really? Is it a myth or just another lesson in how our brains can be fooled by clever angles? Dive in with me as we unravel the truth behind the giant bat that’s got everyone talking—and maybe laugh a bit while we’re at it. LEARN MORE.

Hanging from the roof, the enormous mass lurks in a manner most sinister, unless of course you’re a huge fan of bats.

Or in this case, a fan of huge bats.

There’s a famous photo which claims to show a ‘human-sized bat‘ and depicts the creature dangling upside down as bats like to do, while it seems to dwarf other examples of its species given how it comes across at first glance.

However, all is not as it seems with the image of the giant bat, as while the photo is very much real it’s not always a good idea to believe absolutely everything you see.

The ‘human-sized bat’ photo

The photo itself depicts what looks like a truly huge bat hanging upside down from a roof.

It’s the sort of thing you probably wouldn’t want to wake up and discover in your garden one morning, though you don’t have to worry about a new species of man-bats coming for you.

The large bat looks pretty big, and has a wingspan as wide as some people are tall (X/@AlexJoestar622)

People looked into the matter to fact check it and found that it was not a fake picture, but it was using some forced perspective to make the giant bat seem larger than usual.

The animal is real, but looking at the image might give you the wrong idea about its size, since it looks like it’s halfway to the ground as it hangs from the roof.

They said that some people circulating the image had called it a ‘Golden Crowned Flying Fox’, but that it might actually be a ‘Large Flying Fox’ instead.

How big is the bat?

It’s not quite as big as the picture of it might suggest, since forced perspective makes it seem larger in comparison to the window behind it.

If you look, it’s actually quite a distance away from that picture, so this animal is not going to stand as tall as a human.

As with many flying species, they’re very light and if they were to stand up they’re only about 30cm tall so they’re not actually that big.

If you wanted to get them ‘human-sized’, then you’d need the flying fox to extend its wingspan, which reaches out to an impressive 1.5 metres, as tall as some adult humans.

If this thing stretches its wings out fully then it can enjoy an impressive dimension as far as width is concerned, but humans can stretch their arms out pretty wide as well and we have the height advantage over them.

At least until it starts flying.

When they stretch out their wings the flying fox can reach a width of about 1.5 metres, or just less than one Kylie Minogue (CraigRJD/Getty Images)

Why is a bat called a flying fox?

Despite being referred to as a ‘flying fox’, it’s very much not a fox.

However, the creature’s face has some features which people thought looked fox-like and so the creature ends up getting the nickname.

The flying fox is officially titled the ‘Pteropus vampyrus’ by scientists, but despite the name it doesn’t drink people’s blood and actually only eats a diet of fruits and flowers.

While we think of bats having spectacularly good hearing to make up for their poor eyesight, flying foxes don’t possess this incredibly good hearing or a talent for echolocation.

Instead they can actually see rather well.