Search on for bald eagle spotted with trap attached to its talon

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania wildlife rehabilitator is searching for a bald eagle that was photographed flying with a trap attached to its talon.

Wendy Ebersole Looker shared photos of the trapped eagle which was seen flying in the Gettysburg area in hopes of tracking the distressed animal down.

"Horrors!" Looker said. "This bald eagle is flying in the Gettysburg area with trap attached! Until he weakens or gets snagged we cannot catch him."

Looker added that the eagle appears to have been caught in a trap designed for small game, which a bird that size shouldn't be able to trigger.

"If it was legally set, it was incompetently set," she told Lancaster Online.

Looker and a group of volunteers determined the eagle is likely a male missing from a local nest discovered between Gettysburg and Hanover.

A blackened toe seen in photos of the eagle likely indicate an infection has begun to sink in.

"Obviously, he's going to get snagged or eventually weaken and succumb to infection if we can't help him," Looker said.

She hopes to locate and safely capture the eagle in time to remove the trap and allow it time to recover before returning to the wild.