California Scrub-Jay

California scrub-jays demonstrate 'episodic-like memory' - remembering not just what they cached but where and when. They retrieve perishable foods (wax worms) before they spoil, while leaving non-perishable foods (peanuts) for later. This requires mental time travel - projecting into the past to remember caching events and into the future to plan retrieval sequences.

Nicola Clayton's research revealed scrub-jays also engage in 'experience projection' - behaviors suggesting they imagine others' perspectives. Jays that have stolen others' caches are more likely to re-cache food when observed by competitors - but only if they've had the experience of being a thief themselves. Their own experience shapes their model of others' intentions.

The business parallel applies to competitor modeling based on own experience. Strategists who have themselves employed certain tactics are better at anticipating those tactics from competitors. Like scrub-jays projecting their thieving experience onto observers, executives model competitor behavior through the lens of their own strategic experience.

Scrub-jays also demonstrate that planning requires mental time travel in both directions. Effective caching requires remembering past storage events and projecting future retrieval needs. Business planning similarly requires integrating historical data with future projections - neither memory alone nor prediction alone enables effective strategy.