Henry Walter Bates in the Amazon

HMS Rattlesnake
In the 19th century, naturalists travelled on ships like this! Thomas Henry Huxley went round the world on this ship. He found his wife in Sydney, Australia

Natural history is the study of plants and animals in the wild, and the environments they live in. This includes the geology of the places in which they live.

The work of naturalists is observation, interpretation, collecting and classification, rather than experiments. People who study natural history are called naturalists. They were among the first to explore the world. They were the first to study the Amazon and other tropical places. Naturalists find new species and classify plants and animals. They study ecology.