Vultures are birds of the air that devour flesh. Abinadi declared that a generation would be slain and that “the vultures of the air, and the dogs, yea, and the wild beasts, shall devour their flesh” (Mosiah 12:2).
During the battle between the Nephites and Amlicites, many people died in the wilderness from their wounds and were “devoured by those beasts and also the vultures of the air”. Their bones “have been found, and have been heaped up on the earth” (Alma 2:38).