Hiking trails at the state's Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area in Burlington were closed Friday after a woman had a potentially dangerous encounter with a 150-pound black bear, including one instance when the bear's mouth apparently touched the hiker's leg.

State wildlife officials said the hiker wasn't injured, but that she was followed and circled by the bear Friday afternoon.

As soon as the incident was reported to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection staff, wildlife experts went out to kill the bear, according to agency spokesman Dennis Schain.

“They saw it, but were not able to take action before it disappeared into deep woods,” Schain said. Sessions Woods covers about 700 acres.

“We did set a trap at that location,” Schain said.

He said the DEEP staff is on alert and will respond to any reports of the animal. “We will euthanize it if we have the opportunity to do so,” Schain said. “This is the appropriate action to take after seeing this bear's behavior today.”

Schain said the agency's wildlife staff talked with the woman, whom agency officials declined to identify. “We are relieved she was not injured,” he said. “This was certainly an unusual incident, as bears do not often approach people.”

DEEP officials said the woman reported that the bear, a male that state officials estimated was a year-and-a-half old, followed her for “quite some time” while she was walking through the woods shortly after noon Friday.

The hiker took a video of the bear, which had a DEEP tag in its ear. Agency records showed that the bear had been tagged as a yearling in its winter den as part of the state's program to keep track of Connecticut's bear population.

Signs were posted at entrances to Sessions Woods trails warning hikers that the trails were closed until further notice.

Connecticut's population of black bears has been on the increase, and sightings are almost a daily occurrence in various parts of the state, particularly in northwestern Connecticut.

By some estimates, there may be more than 700 black bears in Connecticut. The state and researchers at the University of Connecticut are now conducting studies to come up with a scientifically accurate bear population count.