Just in case you didn’t catch it in March 2012, there’s a dramatic photograph that has been making the Internet rounds. And here it is – yes again – this week (in October 2012). The new websites and forums are several, including ones who have posted it cold, as if the “mystery” hasn’t been already solved. But as Red Pill Junkie has shown me, a simple search (here) demonstrates this has spread far and wide since March.

This photo (Muercielago Gigante), again, has been falsely labeled as from Peru of a “giant bat” that might be a Chupacabras (as noted on a Spanish site).

But it is not from Peru. It is not a new South American bat. It is not a Chupacabras.

That is the same old story. On the web, things do live on forever.

So, just in case you see this again, here’s what this is and where it was taken: It is an Asian bat, a flying fox, also called a fruit bat, and the photo location origin is the Philippines. Add in forced perspective, and you’ve got another web wonder.

There are other large (supposedly) “flying” mystery animal pictures floating around, so readers/viewers beware. These all too seem to be from Asia, not South America. Not Africa. Above is not a bat, for example, but it is a colugo or flying lemur (Dermoptera); thanks to Karl Shuker for id. (FYI, they glide, and do not fly.)

Flying fox/fruit bat. Zazzle public domain photo.

One mystery with this “Giant Bat” photo does remain. Why did these apparent Filipino soldiers hang a sword over the bat, like the hanging Sword of Damocles? Anyone know if there is a cultural answer why they would hang that apparent sword there? Or was that a clue to the hoax?