Slovak brown bears are big, but they are not always brown. Some are dark like chocolate, others are pale blonde, and a few even have a faint white V-shape across the chest. Their thick fur keeps them warm in the cold mountain winters.
Bears are not really meat-eaters most of the time. Around 75% of what they eat is plants - berries, roots, beech nuts, apples from old orchards. They also love honey and will tear apart a wild bees' nest to get it, despite all the stings. They will also eat ants, fish and the odd small animal.
In autumn, bears do something brilliant. They eat enormous amounts of food - up to 20,000 calories a day, which is ten times what a child eats - and store it as fat. Then they curl up in a den and sleep all winter. This long sleep is called 'hibernation', and during it the bear's heart slows right down. They wake up in spring, thinner but ready for a new year.
Slovak forests are large and quiet enough that bears do well there. The country protects them carefully - rangers track the bears, and signs tell hikers what to do if they meet one (stay calm, don't run, back away slowly). Most hikers never see a bear at all. The bears prefer it that way.