Illustrated under the direction of Robert Kretschmer (1818–1872), they met with wide approval from the educated bourgeoisie.

As of the second edition, which consisted of ten volumes published from 1876 to 1879, the work was already titled Brehms Tierleben.

Perhaps the greatest change in the second edition was the addition of new illustrations by Gustav Mützel, the brothers August and Friedrich Specht and others, which Charles Darwin said were the best he had ever seen.

Editions continued to appear into the second half of the 20th century, sometimes in the form of abridged, one-volume works.

The spelling reform of 1901 did away with the exception of writing "Thier" with th, which never means the English th sound in this context.