Fig. 1
From: Holling meets habitat selection: functional response of large herbivores revisited
Concept plot of the most familiar Holling’s type II functional response \(y(x)=\frac{ax}{b+x}\) for \(a=0.8\) and \(b=0.15\). x is the proportion of availability of a habitat in the home range, limited between 0 and 1, f(x) is the use of a habitat limited between 0 and a, the upper bound of use and b the availability of a habitat at which the habitat is used half of the maximum (\(f(b)=\frac{a}{2}\)). Parameters a and b become ecologically valueable and interpretable when applying limit calculations (see Additional file 1: Appendix S2, S6)