Defensive and social aggression: repeatable but independent

Behavioral traits that vary more between than within individuals are referred to as personality traits. When individuals interact with others, these interactions may form a social network and be described using social network measures. We suggest that these social interactions may reflect behavioral predispositions that themselves may be less variable within than between individuals. If so, the social attributes quantified using network statistics may themselves be personality traits. We have previously found that some social attributes of yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) may be heritable, suggesting that they are profitably viewed as reflecting individually distinctive social predispositions. Here, we asked the degree to which defensive aggression was independent of various measures of social aggression. We quantified defensive aggression when animals were live trapped and asked whether it was related to how socially tolerant marmots were. We found that although some of these social traits were repeatable, none were strongly correlated across contexts. Our results suggest that defensive aggression and social aggression are independent and thus not likely to constrain each other.