Alaska · UplandRuffed grouse

Ruffed grouse is native to Alaska only north of the Alaska Range and in limited pockets of Southeast Alaska, but the species occupies fewer square miles statewide than any of the other three grouse species because its aspen-forest habitat is far less widespread than spruce forest. Unlike the state's failed exotic-bird transplant history (chukar, pheasant), ADF&G ran two well-documented, successful native-species transplant programs to establish ruffed grouse south of the Alaska Range in areas with suitable aspen habitat but no natural population — both are recorded in ADF&G's own official transplant history (Burris/McKnight/Paul, "Game Transplants in Alaska") with far more geographic and quantitative detail than a typical species-profile page provides, and both are classified there as having produced a huntable population.