The Edinburgh-based wild animal vet is is one of the guests at this year’s Wigtown Book Festival where he will be talking on Monday about his work all across the world and his book ‘Exotic Vetting’ in which he discusses the challenges of treating wild animals including giant pandas and tigers – even performing shark endoscopies.
Dr Pizzi is also involved with the programme to reintroduce beavers to Scotland’s rivers. The reintroduction of beavers, which are sometimes blamed for eating fish despite being exclusively vegetarian, is helping restore biodiversity and also providing a natural way to combat flooding, Dr Pizzi said: “Overall the reintroduction has been a real success and will bring lots of benefits. But when you reintroduce an animal that’s been extinct for over 100 years, especially one that modifies the landscape, there will inevitably be times when it leads to conflict between humans and beavers.”
Romain is closely involved with charities and animal reserves on several continents, and does a great deal of work to train vets in other countries to treat wildlife.
