This simulated example illustrates how preference is conditional upon the sample of available habitat. Fifty hypothetical use locations (black dots) were generated in each of two landscapes (a,b; see insets for magnified view of use locations). The background depicts the distribution of forest (white) and meadow (grey) vegetation types. The scale at which availability was sampled ranged from 200 m to 5 km in 200 m intervals (black lines). For clarity, only every fifth contour is shown, representing scales of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 km. Preference for meadow was estimated using logistic regression at each sampling scale. (c) The relationship between the regression coefficient for meadow and sampling scale in each landscape (black and white circles correspond to landscapes a and b, respectively). (d) The same coefficients plotted against the proportion of meadow available at each sampling scale. The inverse logit-shaped line is the prediction based on an analytical solution of this problem (see text).