Understanding the Threat Response of Ruffed Grouse in Hunting

A decade ago I wrote a book, The Urban Deer Complex. Growing up just outside of Boston, I was fascinated by the idea of whitetail deer being able to adapt so well to human environments. It inspired a whole section of the book I labeled “The Science of Fear.” Through rapid evolution accelerated by an encroaching urbanized environment, whitetails were able to pass down behavior that would allow them to distinguish between non-threatening and threatening human behavior. That ideology would subsequently put many a deer on my dinner table over the years, and although it is more complex than the summary here, I never thought it could apply to ruffed grouse. 

At the time, I had yet to read the classic New England Grouse Shooting, written in my hometown by William Harden Foster. Foster made a clear indication to the increasing evasive nature of ruffed grouse and their responses to human pressures. He even credits this intelligence to the reason ruffed grouse survived the early market hunting days of New England while their cousins the Heath Hen fell victim, unable to adapt.