Brown bears spend most of the year quietly looking for food. They are 'omnivores' - they eat plants and animals. In summer they feast on berries, nuts and honey. Despite their size, around three quarters of what they eat is actually plants, not meat. They have a sweet tooth like us.
In winter, brown bears do something amazing: they go into a deep sleep called hibernation, often for four to five months. Their heart slows right down, their body cools off, and they live off the fat they stored up over the autumn. Some mothers even give birth and feed their cubs while still half-asleep in the den.
Brown bears have an incredible sense of smell - around seven times stronger than a dog's. They can smell food from kilometres away. That is how they find the best berry bushes, beehives or fish in mountain streams long before they can see them.
Even though bears are big, they are surprisingly shy. They almost always avoid people. Scientists in the Pyrenees use camera traps - cameras that take a photo when something walks past - to count the bears, because spotting one in real life is so rare.