Western Scrub-Jay (Cache Deception)

California scrub-jays cache food and remember thousands of hiding locations. Crucially, they also deceive. When observed caching, jays return later to move their caches to new locations. They only do this if actually watched during initial caching - demonstrating they track what others observed. Jays that have stolen from others are more likely to re-cache, suggesting personal experience as thief informs their own anti-theft behavior.

This demonstrates experience-informed deception. The jays that re-cache most are those who have stolen themselves - they project their own thieving tendencies onto observers. This represents sophisticated cognition: 'I would steal from caches I saw hidden; therefore others who saw me hide will steal from me.' The thief knows to fear thieves.

The business parallel applies to security measures informed by attack experience. Companies that have been hacked develop better security; executives who have competed aggressively expect aggressive competition. Like scrub-jays, those who have exploited vulnerabilities better protect their own. Attack experience creates defense expertise.

Scrub-jays also demonstrate the cognitive arms race in deception. As theft pressure increased, counter-measures evolved - re-caching, false caching, checking on observers. The deception-detection competition drove cognitive evolution. Competitive markets similarly see escalating sophistication in both competitive intelligence and counter-intelligence.