State park to host grizzly bear education talk Sept. 4

A visit to the wild coastline of Delaware Seashore State Park is the highlight of the summer for many Delaware residents and visitors. Wildlife viewing is abundant in the park during the summer, from watching osprey on their nesting platforms to spotting bottlenose dolphins swimming up and down the coast.

One creature that doesn’t come to mind when spotting wildlife in the park is bears. While Delaware Seashore State Park is certainly not the habitat for bears of any species, one of the park’s volunteers specializes in bear education, and more specifically, grizzly bears.

Park staff will host Bill Cook, a volunteer educator for Delaware Seashore, at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 4, which is National Wildlife Day. Cook spends most of his volunteer hours leading evening amphitheater programs in the campground during the summer, and educating park visitors about ghost crabs during the weekly Wild Crab Chase programs.

After each summer, Cook returns to his hometown of Helena, Mont., where he spends the better part of the year. While there, he teaches bear programs for Montana Wildlife, Fish and Parks, as well as the U.S. Forest Service. Before he heads back west at the end of the summer season, he will present his bear education program at the Indian River Life-Saving Station.

For more information, go to www.visitdestateparks.com/Beaches/DelawareSeashore or call the Indian River Life-Saving Station at 302-227-6991.