What exactly is natural history? To put it simply, it is the study of all living things with which we share this planet. Natural history could be thought of as an observational science involving the exploration of flora and fauna (plants and animals) and their interaction with each other and their environment.



Naturalists want to know all about every species: who they are, how they survive, why they look and behave the way they do. Naturalists also want to know about their interactions with others of their kind and with other species. In other words, naturalists have the insatiable need to know everything about anything that crawls, flies, runs, or sends up shoots.



As no one book can offer comprehensive coverage of all aspects of natural history (volumes have been dedicated to single topics, such as pollination), Michael Runtz' Natural History is simply an introduction to many of its major principles. Featuring ten chapters, Natural History concentrates primarily, but not exclusively, on terrestrial organisms.