Unless you live in Western Maryland, it's rare to see a bear. And even there - home to more than 600 bears - it's pretty rare.

To address the bruin identity crisis, Department of Natural Resources biologists worked with teachers seven years ago to develop black bear education trunks, a half-dozen wheeled, 30-gallon plastic storage bins stuffed full of the bear necessities for a tutorial. Each box contains a hide, a plastic skull, a rubber paw print and scat replica along with a lesson plan tailored to grade levels K-12, a slide show and a video.

The boxes provide information about habits, life cycles, habitat, range and human interaction.

"Teachers love them. They're a great little learning tool," says Bob Beyer, DNR associate director. "It's easy to use. It doesn't take a lot of time for teachers to get up to speed, and then they can rock and roll."

The program has exceeded everyone's wildest expectations and required the addition of three more trunks to handle requests from Scouts, home-schoolers, senior groups, zoos and even chapters of the Humane Society.