6 Unusual Traits of Animal Evolution

For some animals, life is tough — full of hostile environments and dangerous neighbors. To survive, many creatures have developed adaptations worthy of a bit of head-scratching. Here are a few such evolutionary traits, ranging from the quirky to the downright horrifying.

There is much that’s unusual about the maned wolf. Known as the “fox on stilts,” it is the tallest of the canid species and indeed looks part fox — though it isn’t actually related. The wolf’s gangly legs are thought to enable it to spy across the tall savanna grasslands it calls home. Its distinctive bark, called a roar-bark, is also quite unlike any other species.