A 63-year-old US woman has survived a terrifying attack by a black bear, shared all the while with an emergency 911 dispatcher as she made a desperate call for help.

Maryland’s Karen Osborne calmly spoke to a Frederick County 911 operator while playing dead outside her daughter’s rural home near Frederick, about 72 kilometres west of Baltimore.

“[The bear] is right behind me, he’s behind me snorting and stomping and digging in the ground like he’s getting ready to attack,” Ms Osborne said on the 911 call played on WBALTV.

“He’s getting ready to attack me again, please tell my husband I love him.”

She survived the attack by punching the bear, and when that did not work, she played dead, her husband said on Thursday (local time) at the hospital where she is recovering.

“She said she punched him in the face a couple times,” Ronald Osborne said.

“She’s a tough babe.”

She was listed in good condition with a broken left arm and bite wounds on her head and torso, which required more than 70 stitches, her husband said.

He said she was in a lot of pain and did not want to be interviewed.

Bear tracked and killed

Maryland Department of Natural Resources wildlife specialists tracked and killed the 200-pound female bear under a policy mandating death for bears that attack people, Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson said.

Director of the DNR’s Wildlife and Heritage Service Paul Peditto said it was the state’s first recorded bear attack on a human in at least 81 years.

He said the agency had captured and tagged the same bear last summer after she got into a chicken coop.

The Osbornes live next door to their daughter’s family in the Catoctin Mountains near Gambrill State Park.

Mr Osborne said Ms Osborne had gone outside with their leashed dog at about 9:00pm to investigate constant barking from their daughter’s dog.

Mr Peditto said the barking dog had apparently forced at least one of the bear’s three cubs to take refuge up a nearby tree.

“And then when she saw another dog probably close to – or between – her and the cubs, she went into what we call a defensive attack.”

He said the cubs, nearly a year old, could survive without their mother.

The mother bear was familiar to area residents, said the couple’s daughter.

“She’s been in the area forever. We all kind of love her,” Tara Snuffin said.

“We’re all very sad that this had to happen this way.”

The state’s growing bear population, estimated at more than 1000 in 2011, prompted the state to expand hunting this year to Frederick County, where the attack occurred.

Maryland ended a 51-year moratorium on bear hunting in 2004.

-with AP