Marcus Vinicius Candido was born on 06.04.1976 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. He graduated with a diploma from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Parana (UFPR), Brazil, in 1999, having taken several courses and externships on wild and exotic animals, both in Brazil and in the USA. 
After working at small and exotic companion animals clinics in Curitiba, he practiced as a zoo veterinarian  between 2000 and 2010. He was the head veterinarian at Zoo Pomerode, Brazil, between 2.2002-11.2010. 

He obtained a degree of specialist in biology lato sensu at the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) in 2006 and a Master's degree in Veterinary Science with emphasis on veterinary pathology at UFPR in 2008, working in the interface of nutrition and clinical pathology in cracids (neotropical fowl). He was also staff (lecturer) at  the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the Regional University of Blumenau (FURB), Brazil 2009-2012.

After initial training on veterinary endoscopy at the University of Georgia in Athens (UGA), USA (Zoological Medicine Service), he has become increasingly involved with small animal endoscopy. Since late 2015, he is a PhD student at the Doctoral Program of Clinical Veterinary Medicine at the University of Helsinki, working on a project on canine gastrointestinal endoscopy at the department of Small Animal Internal Medicine, where he also acts as a consultant for the Exotic Animal Clinic.