The late Hendrik Coetzee.

The political/cultural divide extends conspicuously into the Outdoors.

The Outdoors Right fishes and hunts. The Extreme Outdoors Right shoots big game and/or hunts par force du chien. The Outdoors Right wears safari jackets, canvas hunting coats, camo for duck and turkey hunting, and Scarlet Hunt Uniforms for fox hunting.

The Outdoors Left hikes, bicycles, kayaks, rafts, rock climbs, and skis. The Outdoors Left wears the latest artificial fabric in Life -Saver-flavor colors.

The Outdoors Right remembers shopping at the old (the real) Abercrombie & Fitch and Wm. Mills, and buying from the Herter’s catalogue. We still shop at L.L. Bean, Filson, Woolrich, and Cabela’s. We used to buy from Orvis, but now they do.

The Outdoors Left buys from Patagonia, Northern Mountain, and REI.

We lust after custom shotguns. They yearn for custom bicycles and hiking boots.

There is surprisingly little overlap between the two worlds, though –regrettably– A River Runs Through It (1992) resulted in a lot of unwelcome cross-over into fly fishing. Men used to say: “I never met a fly fisherman I didn’t like.” Not anymore. When I see some fashionista on the stream loaded down with expensive, brand-new Orvis equipment, I feel like pushing him in.

I sometimes read Outside magazine, and I commonly marvel (and bristle with indignation) over the cultural differences.

We Outdoors Right types would never dream of spending time in the territory of large predators unarmed. The readership of Outside Magazine is capable of debating the ethics of spraying Old Ephraim in the snout with pepper spray. They bicycle through Mountain Lion country. They camp, unarmed, among the grizzlies. And as you will read in the linked article from the Outside Magazine archives on the late Hendrk Coetzee, the Outdoors Left will go kayaking in cannibal-infested regions of the Congo and down rivers full of crocodiles.

Whitewater kayaker Hendrik Coetzee had decided to call it a career after a decade of first descents on the wildest rivers in Africa. The river’s most feared predator had a different ending in store.

Crocodylus niloticus

Orlando Sentinal:

Researchers have confirmed that three Nile crocodiles were captured near Miami, and they say it’s possible more of the man-eating reptiles are still out there, although no one can say for sure.

The big question now: How did they get to Florida?

“They didn’t swim from Africa,” University of Florida herpetologist Kenneth Krysko said. “But we really don’t know how they got into the wild.”

Krysko and his co-authors just published a paper showing that DNA testing proved the three animals captured in 2009, 2011 and 2014 are Nile crocs, a species whose males grow to over 16 feet long and weigh upward of 1,600 pounds.

Nile crocs are believed to be responsible for up to 200 fatalities annually in their native sub-Saharan Africa.

Maybe they’ll eat those Burmese Pythons.

Veterinarian Chang Po-yu reached through the bars to administer an additional shot of sedative, or to remove some tranquilizer darts from the hide of a Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) in the Shoushan Zoo located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, depending on which account you read, when the insufficiently-sedated saurian turned and bit off Dr. Chang’s arm.

Reports in the Asian papers say that police were summoned, and the offending reptile was permanently sedated by two shots from an officer’s sidearm.

Western press reports claim that zookeepers merely fired two shot which either missed, or bounced harmlessly off old smiley’s neck. The shots proved sufficiently alarming, however, to persuade the grinning beast to drop his prize and beat a retreat.

The BBC even reports the croc is doing well, and is enjoying its 15 minutes of celebrity.

I personally suspect that the Oriental papers are telling the truth, and that crocodile has departed for the big swamp in the sky.

Taipei Times

National Geographic News

Whatever happended to the croc, the poor veterinarian’s arm was recovered, and doctors were able to re-attach it after a 6-7 hour operation.