UPDATE: On Saturday, authorities had set a trap for the bear, but said they were not actively searching for it. If it gets trapped, it will be killed, under state policy regarding bears that attack humans. Read more here.
A woman walking her three dogs north of Ojai was attacked by a bear early Friday, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.
The victim, who wished to remain unidentified, suffered minor injuries to her arm and back.
She was walking at 7 a.m. along a road, department spokesman Andrew Hughan said.
"She came across a sow with at least one cub," Hughan said.
The sow, a California black bear, approached the woman and injured her, though the victim was uncertain if she was bitten or scratched.
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She said she was pushed down an embankment and followed by the bear. At the bottom, the woman curled into a ball and remained still. The bear sniffed her and then "moved off into the forest," Hughan said in an emailed statement.
The woman did not seek medical treatment, but she called law enforcement to report the attack.
Hughan said wardens were on the scene as of 3:30 p.m. and the investigation was continuing.
"An effort will be make to locate and capture the offending bear," Hughan said in the statement. "No decisions about the bear will be made until it is captured and verified it was the offender."
Earlier this month, a bear cub was rescued from the Ojai area after being found abandoned in an avocado orchard. The cub was taken to a wildlife center in Lake Tahoe.
Hughan said there's no indication that the bear in Friday's attack was the mother.
The state has confirmed 15 bear attacks since 1980. The most recent was in 2010 in Lake Tahoe, Hughan said. In 2008, a woman was mauled near Bakersfield.
A Ventura County city of about 7,500 that's surrounded by mountains, Ojai is on the edge of the Los Padres National Forest. Bears sightings are not uncommon in that area.
