Award-Winning Photos Celebrate Vultures, Nature’s Unsung Heroes

Young Bearded Vulture and Raven, Spain (2025) — Thomas Remmits

International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD) is an organization dedicated to the conservation of vulture species worldwide, and a big part of that is educating people about the vital role vultures play in a healthy ecosystem. IVAD is even using photography to help spread the good word about vultures, with its most recent photo contest focused on showing vultures interacting with each other and their habitats.

The winner of the Vulture Interactions Photography Contest, Thomas Remmits, captured a beautiful photo of a young Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) alert while a Common Raven (Corvus corax) approaches in-flight in the background.

As IVAD explains, ravens and vultures frequently encounter each other in the wild, as they often compete for the same carrion. These interactions “balance caution, opportunism, and rivalry.”

“The image perfectly reflects this year’s theme by showcasing the dynamic relationships that define life in the world,” IVAD says of Remmits’ winning shot.

Alongside Remmits’ overall victory, IVAD selected Regional Runners-Up across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Three of these regional winners are available to see below, while the fourth, Narendra Shrivastava’s photo that won the Asia region, is available to view on IVAD’s website.

“Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you to every photographer who entered the competition. Your images help tell the story of vultures beyond their reputation as scavengers, showing the remarkable behaviors, relationships and ecological importance of these incredible birds,” IVAD says.

These images are all strong examples of the power of photography. Each winning photo shows vultures in a new light, capturing different aspects of what makes vultures such a special type of bird. Heather Morris’ photo shows the quintessential feeding behavior, while Anastasov’s portrait shows the more regal, pretty side of vultures. Both aspects are important.

While vultures feasting on carrion may not be particularly pleasant to witness, these feathered obligate scavengers are among nature’s best defenders against the spread of disease. Vultures get an extremely unfair and, frankly, damaging reputation as harbingers of death and decay.

In reality, they are frequently misunderstood and underappreciated. Vultures are like nature’s recyclers, disposing of disease-spreading carcasses and reclaiming otherwise lost energy for the broader ecosystem. There are very few species that make as big of a positive impact on ecosystems as vultures, and arguably no animal protects humans as much as they do.

As PetaPixel reported over a decade ago, vultures are the “antiheroes of our ecosystems.” The important word there is “heroes.”

Image creditsInternational Vulture Awareness Day. Individual photographers are credited in the image captions.