For me at least, this is a once in a lifetime thing to see. Firstly, Esperanto, being mentioned in Australia? Zounds! And in the Australian media? (well, 'tis just a columnist, but that's better than nothing yeah?).

Pardonnez moi, please excuse my English. The article in question.

Those reading up on cetacean intelligence may also find another funky article interesting; this one instead does not talk about the real Esperanto, but rather the idea that cetaceans of certain size, intelligence, communication and abilities (dolphins, orcas, pygmy porpoise thingies etc) are in fact able to communicate with each other using language/communication that is neutral between them, e.g. Dolphin Esperanto.

Cetacean Esperanto: New Finding Indicates that Dolphins and Orcas might be able to communicate with each other

(Edit: even better, albeit slightly different newstory - Study: Bilingual Dolphins Talk Interspecies Shop)

The reasoning behind this seems to be that Dolphins, who can be eaten by Transient orcas (the ones that eat seals and mammals for extra kicks), will happily approach Southern Resident orcas (who eat just fish), despite the fact both lots of orca look the same. Of course, the dolphins, who some scientists are now saying are the smartest things on this planet (pity they don't have thumbs! >), according to that logic might just be able to tell the difference in pitch between the different orca calls, but who knows.

Either way, ¡viva international/interspecies communication!

ceigered:For me at least, this is a once in a lifetime thing to see. Firstly, Esperanto, being mentioned in Australia? Zounds! And in the Australian media? (well, 'tis just a columnist, but that's better than nothing yeah?)!

Hey, good stuff! Too bad we haven't deciphered dolphinspeak yet, or maybe we could design ketesperanto, but then the potential Cetacean converts might say 'Won't do. You have to learn la pacifika with all its irregularities to get ahead in this world and earn lots of tuna.'

Have noses that run and feet that smell?

... that exists in German too!

@ Miland
Could be the case! Who knows, those damn bottleneck/nose/armpit dolphins might be speaking delphinic Solresol/Squeekclicksqueek.

As for AU-Esperantismo, I am wondering if those of us not in the Eastern states are missing out on a larger community there. I may have to ask an Esperanto-knowing classmate if he knows of anything Esperantish here in Adelaide.

@ Darkweasel - Smelly noses and runny feet? What's this about?