As practitioners promote passive restoration as a complementary approach to technical reclamation, it is imperative to know its drivers. Although the consequences of endozoochory can be crucial to passive restoration success, few experimental studies assess the use of heavily disturbed sites by seed dispersers such as carnivores and how the seeds they bring in emerge and survive. Using an indoor sowing experiment conducted in a quarry located within a natural park in Portugal, we examined for the first time how carnivore endozoochorous seeds collected in the quarry potentially influence its passive restoration, through effects on plant emergence and survival. Also, we tested whether sowing date and water soaking, relevant factors when sowings are to be carried out, would affect seedling emergence and mortality rates when compared with the effect of endozoochory. Our target species were included in the revegetation plan of the quarry, of which endozoochorous seeds of Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) were collected in sufficient number for analysis. Irrespective of the carnivore species, endozoochorous carob seeds performed similarly to untreated seeds regarding emergence rates. Endozoochorous carob seedlings showed greater mortality rates but the net result for the plant can still be the colonization of recently vacant habitats by a large proportion of viable seeds. Concerning sowing date, the later carob seeds were sown over the fruit-ripening season the faster seedlings emerged. Water soaking increased emergence rate by 6.5 times. Broadly, sowings with previous soaking and carnivore-mediated seed dispersal of this dry-fruited tree can jointly enhance quarry restoration. Implications for Practice• Restorers can undertake pilot sowing experiments prior to large-scale revegetation campaigns to identify which species benefit the most from endozoochory. • Carnivores in the surroundings of a quarry contribute a large proportion of viable seeds, likely assisting quarry passive restoration. • Carnivores ingesting carob seeds later in the fruiting season may assist quarry passive revegetation more readily as seeds ingested around that time emerge earlier. • Immersion in tap water is a simple, inexpensive, and highly efficient method to break physical dormancy when carob seed sowings are to be carried out in degraded sites.

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Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n =31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,857), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n = 12,159], Monachus monachus [n = 1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n = 197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation‐related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications.

Implications for practice: Restorers can undertake pilot sowing experiments prior to large scale revegetation campaigns to identify which species can benefit the most from endozoochory. Carnivores in the surroundings of a quarry contribute a large proportion of viable seeds, likely assisting quarry passive restoration. Carnivores ingesting carob seeds later in the fruiting season may assist quarry passive revegetation more readily as seeds ingested around that time emerge earlier. Immersion in tap water is a simple, inexpensive, and a highly efficient method to break physical dormancy when carob seed sowings are to be carried out in degraded sites.3 Abstract:As practitioners promote passive restoration as a complementary approach to technical reclamation, it is imperative to understand the mechanisms such as endozoochory. Although the consequences of endozoochory can be crucial to passive restoration success, few experimental studies assess the use of heavily disturbed sites by seed dispersers such as carnivores and how the seeds they bring in emerge and survive. Using an indoor sowing experiment conducted in a quarry located within a natural park in Portugal, we examined for the first time how carnivore endozoochorous seeds collected in the quarry potentially influence its passive restoration, through effects on plant emergence and survival. Also, we tested whether sowing date and water soaking, relevant factors when sowings are to be carried out, would affect seedling emergence and survival rates when compared with the effect of endozoochory. Most interesting in our analysis were the results for Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), a dry-fruited species that was also being used in an artificial revegetation action at the quarry. Irrespective of the carnivore species, endozoochorous carob seeds performed similarly to untreated seeds regarding emergence rates. Endozoochorous carob seedlings showed greater mortality rates but the net result for the plant can still be the colonization of recently vacant habitats by a large proportion of viable seeds. The later carob seeds were sown, the faster seedlings emerged, including endozoochorous seedlings. Water soaking increased emergence rate by 6.5 times. Broadly, plantings, sowings with previous soaking, and carnivore-mediated seed dispersal of this dry-fruited tree can jointly enhance quarry restoration.