Their beaks and necks are covered in blood and feces as they strip rotting carcasses of flesh and skin. Only the largest can tear open dead animal body so they furiously bore a hole through eyes, nostrils and anus of a carcase. Surrounded by flies and exposed to deadly bacteria – a picture that evokes unpleasant feeling of disgust, but all the same vultures play crucial role in desease control and waste cleanup in the environment.  

Their claws and beaks are not well designed to kill the prey. Vultures survive solely on scavenging. Acids in their digestive system neutralize many bactareia, such as rabies, cholera, Tuberculosis, Anthrax and Clostridia, that pose risk to other animals and people. Their well-developed sense of smell (especially of Turkey vulture and yellow-headed vulture), which is unique among birds, allows them to sniff out sulfurous chemicals produced by decaying body from more than a mile away. Once detected, they want to be the first at the feast. Vultures feed in wakes of tens to more than a hundred individuals and devour the body to the bone quickly, so they eliminate the spread of bacteria by other scavengers or flies.

There are 23 volture species worldwide and they live on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Populations of vultures are on a decline worldwide, 8 of them are critically endangered and another 3 endangered, with by far the worst decline happening in Asia. In India populations of the most common vultures—white-rumped, long-billed, and slender-billed—declined by more than 96% in just a single decade. Population of read headed vulture declined by 91% between 1990s and 2003.

Historical reports indicate that vultures were abundant in Asia just a few decades ago. Drug poisoning was the biggest threat to them. In Asia, stock treated with anti-flamatory diclofenac was behind the reduction of their population. Similarly, in Africa, using deworming granules caused the same result. Manufacture and and import of diclofenac as a veterinary drug was banned in India, Nepal and Pakistan in 2006. Some other drugs, that are toxic for vultures has been taken out of the market, and reserves that aim to protect nesting and breeding areas of vultures have been established.

Despite the effort their numbers are most probably going to decline in future too. Habitat loss, poaching activity and human-animal conflict still persist threatening recovery of their population. Establishement of reservations attract predators and many time farmers are affected. Loss of a cow to a predator puts a strain on relations between farmer´s own and wildlife survival. Attempts to poison predators to protect own livelihood lead inderectly to poisoning of vultures too, as predators are not the only one who feed on poisoned livestock. Vultures reproduce only once in every two years and reach sexual maturity in age of 5 or 7. Only very few of the newborn will make it to their adulthood. Recovery of their populations is thus a long term process.