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You know... That same datapoint could feed into a sort of long-term "Migration" system too, where creature species in a localized region have some form of tolerance threshold ceiling and/or rate-over-time for threat, where surpassing it results in the dramatic decision for them to attempt to migrate regions. 

Could ultimately work well for them or for the new regions' species, or terribly, or some combination.  Plus it might deprive the OLD region from an important food source or otherwise destabilize it, resulting in a natural cascade migration/extinction/regrowth effect. The idea of an Apex predator feeling so threatened they shift regions only to THEN completely destabilize the region they shifted towards... that sounds like a delightful interaction.

Such a system might indirectly result in Species that feel threatened by humans ending up naturally moving away if human population centers get closer (b/c it would be causing an increase in traffic e.g. "threat" application).

And probably would need to apply a statistic approach to account for outlier scenarios, like where humans decide to just bully the same one/two individual creatures but the rest of the species in the region is left alone?  Plus some kind of "transition period buff" to give the environment time to at least try to stabilize after a migraine event occurs.

A couple thoughts around this system and potential other correlating systems that might end up operating together as a sort of "Fight or Flight" engine...

1. "Fight-to-flee" behaviors, that seek to tactically inhibit a foe's ability to pursue.
   1. Immediate sense is that there's some context of "observed original pursuit potential" versus "observed inhibited pursuit potential"
2. "Pounce" solo behaviors, supporting a short-term burst of either straight-line (cheetah) behavior or aoe/agility (jackrabbit or snake) that may go unobserved in the pressure
   1. E.g. "I see how fast that thing's moving and account for that speed but get surprised when I move in such a way that causes the pursuer/pursued to engage their burst"
3. "Herd" vs "HerdING" social behaviors, seeking to manipulate pressure complexity through grouping with like-entities
   
   1. Same-species
   2. Symbiotic-species?
4. "Cornering" the animal, either through physical or perceived barriers, resulting in a "fight-to-the-death" versus "fight-to-flee"
   1. (as you'd hinted at earlier, with the "fight-to-flee" idea)
5. "Beguiling" behaviors, where a would-be pursuer/pursued attempts to subvert another creature's "programming" by behaving in a way counter to expectations
   1. Rushing a predator trying to close distance
      1. Bear rush, or a rabbit running at the predator just to zip around them & take advantage of a perceived low-agility
   2. Posing as weak in order to gain some form of advantage
   3. Lure into disfavorable terrain, "playing dead/damaged", a social ambush, or into an optimal range

I enjoy the concept of the cognition-oriented skills impacting memory-retention, retention quality, and some combination of assessment speed / accuracy -- especially when the design space both allows a luck stat (direct or comparative) to shake the equation a bit and enables complexity like having the OTHER creature's skills influencing the assessment / retention-quality.  For that latter, I think of the various "mimic" creatures that spend effort towards fooling their observer ... as well as your traditional "lure" creatures such as Anglers, various snakes, and bird-call-imitators.

"Aarn" is nowhere near as good a hunter, and relies in luck

I can't help but feel personally called out by this aspect of the evolutionary algorithm.

Solid mission statement!  TL:DR -- "first"

It'll be a blast exploring the line between creative vision and engaging playability.  As we've discussed "offline", a significant portion of the gaming space is saturated with development taking advantage of LONG-established norms -- which isn't inherently "bad", though it isn't nearly as gripping and often requires adjacent aspects such as the Content itself to make up for the "been-there-done-that" factor.  Speaking personally with a more direct example, each new roguelike-deckbuilder that hits the market needs to acheive a higher bar in order to grab my attention... because even though I'm a sucker for card games, the most important aspects to me are often the learning -> optimization -> mastery phases, which often establishes skills that translate between roguelike-deckbuilders! This dilemma especially emphasizes the impact of those willing to break through the creative mould and force the player to challenge their preconceived skillsets.  Starting with the dream and using development to make it a reality knowing there will be bumps and pitfalls... that's how you become one of those axiomatic systems others treat as the norm!

Emphasis here on "systems", too.  Games are made up of an ecosystem of features organized (some loosely, others tightly) into control around a given experience.  Sometimes they're wholly independent like Dwarf Fortress's "era-generation" and "unit anatomy" systems or Star Control II's "space-combat" vs "lander exploration" systems -- others symbiotic, like the multitude of "sensing" and "interaction" examples leading an entity to make meaningful decisions based on what they perceive.  Starting with the desire of a system leads naturally to designing/development, and I think the experimentation therein is critical to expanding the communal imagination.  Not every system will be novel, nor does it need to be in order for the overall experience to evoke that same sense of wonder & reward.

Personal axiomatic gaming inspirations relevant in some way to this project (I'll absolutely be missing some, plz forgive):

• The Summoning
• Oregon / Amazon Trail series
• Star Control II:  The Ur-Quan Masters
• Starsiege
• Monty Python
  • You might ask yourself "Wait, but this isn't a game?"
• Starcraft: Brood War custom maps
• Demon Souls
• Dwarf Fortress
• Archeage
• Rain World