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Feeding Behavior
Cooperative Hunting
Multiple predators work together to trap and capture prey - demonstrated in groupers, moray eels, and some sharks.
Trigger: Food Function: Groups capture prey that individuals cannot
📖 Overview
Groupers on Red Sea reefs recruit hunting partners - typically moray eels or Napoleon wrasses - by shaking their heads at them. The grouper hunts open water; the moray flushes prey from crevices. Both eat. Similar cooperative patterns are documented in blue sharks and even dolphinfish schools driving baitballs.
🐟 Examples Across Species
Roving coralgrouper (Plectropomus pessuliferus), giant moray (Gymnothorax javanicus), sailfish and mackerel schools around baitballs.
✨ Fun Fact
Roving coralgrouper communicate hunt invitations to moray eels through species-specific head-shake displays - one of the first documented cases of interspecies cooperative signalling in fish.