Giant Trevally

Giant trevally hunt cooperatively, with groups working together to herd baitfish against structures where escape routes are limited. Individual fish take turns attacking while others maintain the trap. In some locations, trevally have learned to hunt birds - timing strikes to catch fledgling terns as they learn to fly. This learned behavior passes through populations and appears in specific locations where conditions favor it.

The bird-hunting behavior demonstrates behavioral flexibility unusual in fish. Trevally in one lagoon hunt birds; trevally elsewhere don't. The behavior emerged in response to local opportunity and spread through the population. This cultural learning - rare in fish - allows trevally to exploit opportunities that instinct alone would miss.

For business, giant trevally represent organizations with learned competitive behaviors that emerge from local conditions and spread through the organization. A regional sales technique that works gets adopted company-wide. A customer service approach that succeeds in one market spreads to others. The ability to learn from local success and distribute that learning organization-wide creates competitive advantages that purely instinct-driven competitors lack. Trevally hunting birds isn't in their DNA - it's in their local culture, learnable and transferable.