Daily Postcard: Close up view of a turkey vulture spotted on Turkey Vulture Day, Sept. 2, at Bandelier National Monument. Vultures and other scavengers play a vital role in ecosystems like Bandelier by breaking down carcasses into nutrients that can be absorbed into the ecosystem. Rather than hunting prey, they eat animals that have died of natural causes or been killed by another carnivore. These talented birds can smell carrion from more than one mile away and fly more than 200 miles in a day. Source: BNM. NPS photos: Sally King/NPS