Every 15 minutes one elephant loses its life to poaching. Elephants are being killed for their ivory tusks to sell it on black markets. Vultures usually circle a carcass to fly down eventually trying to grab a scrap of the carcass. This circling is a telltale sign to ranger teams that there are poachers present and that an animal has been poached. This allows them to take action and try and catch the poachers. 

Due to the fact that vultures give away the location of a poached carcass they are often poisoned and killed. The White Headed Vulture, Cape Vulture, Lappet-Faced vulture and Hooded Vulture are all endangered for this reason. Vultures are very important for the ecosystem for many reasons.