When I was 13 yrs old hunting with my Dad and his buddies in PA, they had a bear scare around the camper 2 years early. It involved someone running back thru the mountain laurel with his pants around his legs screaming, " Bear! Bear!" in the middle of the night. So my 2nd year there as the greenhorn, the story is told as an initiation of fear which the old timers thought was funny. I shot my first whitetail buck next opening morning, 6 am, 2 hrs back in the forest. It took 5 hrs to drag out. Walking thru a sea of mountain laurel can be intimidating to a kid, especially when he starts to see, Bear crap, Bear prints, was that a Bear sound? then all of a sudden the brush 5 feet in front of you erupts! With huge killer!....
Ringneck Pheasants... True story. To this day the oldtimers still give a great ribbing!