Grouse have long attracted and fascinated people. Their display behaviour, and their traditional communal mating grounds or "leks", have inspired poetry and folklore as well as scientific theories on sexual selection and mating systems. Im many parts of their range, hunting plays a major role in the culture, economy, and subsistence of local communities. Although from a global perspective their status is not critical, grouse are far from being safe, and on a local scale, many local populations of grouse are declining and threatened with extinction. This plan provides a guide to the distribution, status, and threats to all grouse species; its major objective is to identify conservation priorities from a global perspective