A pack of polar bears has taken over an abandoned Soviet-era research station on Kolyuchin Island, a remote outpost in the Chukchi Sea off Russia’s far northeastern coast.

Drone footage captured by travel blogger Vadim Makhorov earlier this month shows the bears roaming freely through the scattered buildings, poking their heads out of windows and doors, and even swiping playfully at the drone as it flew past. Makhorov estimated that more than 20 bears are currently active on the island, using the station’s crumbling structures as shelter from the wind and rain.

“I think they see these houses as protection from the elements,” Makhorov told Reuters. “In general, they get along fine there.”

The weather station was once staffed by Soviet scientists but was abandoned in the early 1990s following the collapse of the USSR. Today, the site is surrounded only by the Arctic’s stark landscapes and, increasingly, its top predators.

Polar bears are typically solitary animals, though they can gather in large numbers when food is plentiful. A few years ago, a whale carcass washed ashore nearby, drawing in more than 200 bears, Makhorov recalled. Scientists note that while polar bears can be sociable, they usually compete for food and mates.

As climate change accelerates the melting of sea ice, polar bears are spending more time on land in search of food and shelter. In some Arctic communities, encounters between humans and bears have become common, prompting residents to install spikes on windows or nail-studded boards — known as “bear slippers” — outside doors to keep them at bay.

Makhorov described the sight of the bears wandering through the derelict Soviet station as both surreal and symbolic. On Instagram, he wrote: “The Arctic predators are no strangers to comfort. In sunny weather, you [polar bears] can lie on your belly in the yard.”