They eat dead and rotting meat, sometimes climbing into the carcass to grab a lung or heart, although they do prefer fresh meat over rotten. The first vulture to the meal rushes to eat the eyes. Rarely do vultures kill what they eat. Instead, they wait for a victim to be taken down by a predator, motor vehicle, or old age and disease. Nevertheless, vultures play an important role in our ecosystem by helping to recycle dead animals back into the food web.
Vultures have a fascinating evolutionary history.
In fact, Old World vultures and New World vultures are not closely related to each other. Storks are much closer to New World vultures, while Old World vultures are closer to eagles and hawks. Several ancient civilizations were fascinated by vultures. The early Egyptians considered the griffon vulture to be a form an important goddess sometimes assumed. The Mayans saw the king vulture as a symbol of rain, and Native Americans honored the California condor, now virtually extinct.