Table 1. Percentage of times that a variable changes its position within the ranking.

	Position with other variable orders
Ranking order	1°	2°	3°	4°	5°	6°	7°	8°	9°	10°	11°	12°
	Data set-1 to Data set-4
First	92.5	6.2	1.2
Second	6.0	76.8	7.8	4.3	1.8	3.3	0.1
Third	1.7	8.7	55.7	25.9	6.0	1.1	0.6	0.1		0.2	0.1	0.3
Fourth		3.8	24.7	40.7	22.9	4.8	1.8	0.8		0.2	0.3	0.8
Fifth		1.2	5.7	14.2	42.3	24.5	7.9	2.3	0.4	0.6	1.4	0.3
	Lesser Kestrel Data set
AUTOCOV4	100
FARMLAND		95	2				1	2
DROOST		2	70	21	5			2
FOREST			21	49	29						1
DCOLONY10		3	9	30	52	4	1	1
	Egyptian Vulture Data set
ELEVATION	80	16	3
SHRUB	21	76	3
PATCH		6	94
ROAD				87	10	1	1	1
LENGTH				7	47	19	10	13	2	1

Ranking order: Position by amount of independent explanatory power and analysed in the reference order (i.e. alphabetic order). Only the first five variables are shown.

Data set-1 to 4: numerical simulations, N = 1,200.

Lesser Kestrel Data set: N = 100, only eleven variables.

Egyptian Vulture Data set: N = 100.