Abundance of Deer on Victorian Public Land

Model-based predictions of average deer abundance on Victorian public land. Model predictions are based on camera-trap and deer sign surveys at 317 sites across Victoria conducted between 2021 and 2023. The raster data is divided into four layers/bands for the four species analysed in this study: Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor), Fallow deer (Dama dama), Red deer (Cervus elaphus) and Hog deer (Axis porcinus). Abundance estimates are provided as a numeric decimal of deer per square kilometre of public land within each grid cell. The technical report accompanying this data is available from the Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) website: https://www.ari.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0035/686591/ARI-Technical-Report-368-Deer-abundance-in-Victoria.pdf

The raster data may be loaded into programs such as R or QGIS for analysis. When opening the data in QGIS, undertake the following steps: 1) Follow 'Layer > Add Later > Add Raster Layer' to select the tif file to be added 2) Right-click on the added layer in the 'Layers' panel and select 'Properties' 3) Visualise the abundance of one of the four species of deer by selecting 'Symbology > Band Rendering > Render Type = Singleband Pseudocolor' 4) Choose the band (species) you wish to display 5) Apply the changes

Data and Resources

Additional Information

Field Value
Published (Metadata Record) 16/04/2026
Last updated 16/04/2026
Organisation Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
Category
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Full metadata URL https://metashare.maps.vic.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/api/records/3e0d1910-5615-42a9-ad50-37b420f3e019/formatters/cip-pdf?root=export&output=pdf
Update Frequency Unknown