Functional Responses with Predator Interference: Viable Alternatives to the Holling Type II Model

A predator's per capita feeding rate on prey, or its functional response, provides a foundation for predator–prey theory. Since 1959, Holling's prey-dependent Type II functional response, a model that is a function of prey abundance only, has served as the basis for a large literature on predator–prey theory. We present statistical evidence from 19 predator–prey systems that three predator-dependent functional responses (Beddington-DeAngelis, Crowley-Martin, and Hassell-Varley), i.e., models that are functions of both prey and predator abundance because of predator interference, can provide better descriptions of predator feeding over a range of predator–prey abundances. No single functional response best describes all of the data sets. Given these functional forms, we suggest use of the Beddington-DeAngelis or Hassell-Varley model when predator feeding rate becomes independent of predator density at high prey density and use of the Crowley-Martin model when predator feeding rate is decreased by higher predator density even when prey density is high.