Morphometric measurements in wildlife are essential data needed to link behaviour and ecology to life‐history traits. However, acquisition of such data, especially in large vertebrates, is a challenging and limiting aspect in many studies due to associated capture and handling. Ultimately, this prevents testing important hypotheses in wildlife ecology. We demonstrate how to overcome some of these challenges by improving the far‐reaching potential of photogrammetry for wildlife. We validate a methodology using photogrammetry to acquire measurements of complex, curvilinear, morphometric traits (deer antlers) at long range (up to 200 m), providing a methodological foundation for further application to numerous physical attributes and species. We calibrated and validated two different photogrammetric camera systems and applied long‐range photogrammetry to measure a suite of antler features from deer trophies positioned analogous to free‐living, wild deer. We also developed, validated and described an efficient correction protocol to overcome the complexity of three‐dimensional antler features. This complexity previously biased the acquisition of absolute measurements. Our measurement estimates were characterized by mean errors lower than 5% when compared to true sizes, with our correction protocol for antlers particularly effective and validated with independent antler sizes. Importantly, the estimated size rankings based on the true sizes were identical to the rankings estimated by photogrammetry in all cases. We measured antlers in free‐living, wild fallow deer as a field validation and demonstration, showing how we were able to collect physical trait measurements of 230 antlers without capture. This non‐invasive, remote and fast technique can provide valuable and accurate data allowing researchers to address new hypotheses by linking life‐history traits to wildlife ecology, behaviour and management.

中文翻译：

---

远程，非侵入式摄影测量法，用于测量野生动物的生理特征

野生动植物的形态计量学测量是将行为和生态与生命历史特征联系起来所需的基本数据。然而，由于相关的捕获和处理，在许多研究中，尤其是在大型脊椎动物中，此类数据的获取是具有挑战性和局限性的方面。最终，这阻止了对野生动植物生态学中重要假设的检验。我们展示了如何通过提高摄影测量技术对野生生物的深远潜力来克服其中的一些挑战。我们验证了使用摄影测量法获取远距离（最大200 m）复杂，曲线，形态特征（鹿角）的测量值的方法，为进一步应用于众多物理属性和物种提供了方法论基础。我们校准并验证了两种不同的摄影测量相机系统，并应用了远程摄影测量技术，以从与自由生活的野鹿类似的位置的鹿奖杯中测量出一组鹿角特征。我们还开发，验证和描述了一种有效的校正协议，可以克服三维鹿角特征的复杂性。这种复杂性以前使绝对测量值的采集产生了偏差。我们的测量估计值的特征是，与真实尺寸相比，平均误差低于5％，我们针对鹿角的校正协议特别有效，并通过独立的鹿角尺寸进行了验证。重要的是，在所有情况下，基于真实尺寸的估计尺寸等级与通过摄影测量法估计的等级相同。我们测量了自由生活中的鹿角，野鹿的野外验证和示范，展示了我们如何能够在不捕获的情况下收集230头鹿角的生理特征。这种非侵入性，远程和快速的技术可以提供有价值和准确的数据，使研究人员可以通过将生命历史特征与野生动植物的生态，行为和管理联系起来，提出新的假设。