As industrial-scale soybean producers join loggers and cattle ranchers in the race for land acquisition, the demand for agricultural sectors hastily increases. The lack of proper legislation regarding wilderness conservation is leading agricultural producers to claim land free willingly, fragmenting and demolishing South American forests at an increasing rate. To illustrate the extent of this destruction, National Geographic attests that in the last forty years, twenty percent of South American forests have been cut down. The animals residing within these forests thus suffer either displaced or death as their home ranges become farmland. One of the most prominent species affected by this globalization is the king vulture, a species whose decline steadily continues. Prior to the destruction of these forests, king vultures filled an ecological niche in which they were the primary source of disease containment. They accomplish this by consuming and thus disposing of rotting carrion that would otherwise make scavenging animals sick. The decline of king vulture populations thus puts these other animals at risk. This predicament, in combination with the inconsistencies of current experimental analysis, necessitates the advancement of captive king vulture research, not only for the conservation of king vultures themselves, but also for the conservation of other animal species in their ecosystem.