Urbanization often disrupts wildlife habitats, but creative design can mitigate this impact. For polecats, a species increasingly adapting to city life, thoughtfully designed outdoor seating can provide shelter, safety, and even hunting opportunities. Here’s how urban planners and designers can support these elusive mammals:

1. Incorporate Hollow Spaces: Benches or seating platforms with hollow bases create sheltered nesting spots, mimicking the natural burrows polecats prefer.

2. Use Natural Materials: Untreated wood, stone, or dense shrubs around seating areas offer camouflage and reduce human disturbance.

3. Elevated Pathways: Low-height seating with gaps underneath allows polecats to move stealthily while hunting rodents—a key part of their urban diet.

4. Green Roof Seating: Integrating vegetation atop bus stops or benches provides cover and attracts prey species like insects and small mammals.

5. Strategic Placement: Positioning seating near green corridors or water sources connects fragmented habitats, aiding polecat movement.

By blending functionality for humans with ecological benefits, cities can foster coexistence with polecats—a win for biodiversity and urban livability. Small design tweaks, such as adding brush piles near seating, further enhance these spaces as wildlife refuges. Such measures demonstrate how urban infrastructure can actively contribute to species conservation.