A pair of area polar bears.

A pair of area polar bears. (Photo: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration/Public Domain)

Meteorologists at a remote Russian weather station are having trouble with the neighbors. For two weeks, they’ve been under siege from polar bears, reports NBC News.

The five scientists, who work at a station on one of the Izvesti Tsik Islands in Russia’s Kara Sea, are used to a few bears hanging around. But this year, there are about a dozen, including four cubs, and they’ve been cozying up.

They started things off by eating one of the scientists’ dogs, writes Agence France-Presse. Lately, they’ve been napping right outside the outpost’s windows. The meteorologists have had to give up on some of their tasks, because they can’t go outside.

They’ve also used up all of their flares—though a boat is on its way with another shipment, and they still have a shotgun in case of (even more) emergency.

If this particular nightmare seems familiar, it may be because it also happened last year around this time, when three Russian scientists were trapped by a couple of bears on Vaygach Island.

Thus far, this team has been understanding. “The bears live in the Arctic, you know,” station supervisor Vasily Shevchenko told NBC News. “We can’t ban them from hanging around.”

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