Large mammals select conspicuous objects on which to deposit their scent marks, which may function to supplement the olfactory signal, visually and/or chemically. Analysing marking sites is paramount to understanding whether signallers could mitigate potential fitness costs by placing scents strategically to reduce time and energy investment. The defining characteristics of marking sites are unclear across species, and variation in the literature concerning selectivity may be explained by behavioural plasticity. We took an evolutionary perspective on the selection and spatial distribution of marking trees by brown bears, Ursus arctos, to account for such variation. Our hypothesis, that brown bears would be selective in the trees used for sc...