carrion

Vultures thus fulfil an important ecological role by cleaning landscapes of carrion and containing the spread of wildlife diseases.

Jiří Hřebíček created an artistic image of a carrion crow by using a long shutter speed while moving his camera on purpose.

Also, the flower gets pollinated by the insects attracted to its rotten smell, “typically sweat bees, flesh flies and carrion beetles who enjoy the pungent odor,” he said.

Margalida referred to vultures as "the most efficient species at locating and disposing of carrion."

They are opportunistic eaters of just about anything, but their consumption of carrion — their comfort with the dead — made them a bad omen long before Edgar Allan Poe turned them into a cliché.