June 2025 ABI Alum Spotlight: Konatsu Ono

My parents are Japanese and Colombian/French and I grew up moving between the USA and Japan. As a child I always wanted to be around animals and my future dream evolved from farmer to veterinarian to finally ethologist after reading King Solomon’s
Ring by Konrad Lorenz at the age of 15. From there on I decided I would learn to talk to animals and have yet to look back.

I chose the UC Davis ABI program because the university was filled with farm animals and boasted of having the best veterinary program. I chose the ABI program because the major heavily focused on research and I took all the advantage I could of it. My first
semester I asked to be housed at the Tercero dorms in order to wake up to the smell of cows and did my first internship feeding the calves at 7am. From there the internships never stopped and I went on to code Sage-Grouse lekking calls and behavior, did
fieldwork with the Putah Creek Nest-box Highway, coded elephant play behavior, volunteered at the raptor center, and was a research assistant for a rat lab and a dog-human synchrony project. Throughout this time I also did extensive theoretical work on animal coloration which went on to be published in three papers and became my practicum research.

The experiences I accumulated throughout my time with the ABI was what gave me the confidence to know I wanted to continue in research and specialize in animal communication. I moved to Zurich, Switzerland for my master’s degree in Evolutionary Language Science and upon completion my master advisor invited me to pursue a PhD with her lab. I am currently a second year doctoral candidate in the evolutionary biology program at the University of Zurich studying marmoset monkey baby babbling in the wild and have been living in Brazil for the last 4 months collecting data! The confidence to do all this and come this far would never have been possible without the support of the ABI program for providing the many research opportunities as an undergrad and their amazing advisor and coordinator Elvira and Dr. Bob who always cared (maybe worried) yet supported me throughout. Thank you sincerely.