THIS PROJECT WAS first launched in 1974 by John Skinner as a follow-up to Dr Austin Roberts's monumental work The Mammals of South Africa, which was published in 1951 and was a singular achievement in the history of mammalogy in Africa.

After a superb team effort – the drive and funding for which were provided by the late Professor Daniel M. Joubert, then Vice Chancellor of the University of Pretoria and himself a mammalian physiologist of repute – The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion was published by the University of Pretoria in 1983 under the authorship of the late Dr Reay Smithers. At that time, and with the continuing support of Professor Joubert, ongoing work on this book was regarded as a prestige project by the University of Pretoria and every encouragement was given to revise the script comprehensively and produce new illustrations for a second edition. This was duly done, and in 1990 the University of Pretoria published 12 000 copies of the second edition, co-authored by John Skinner and Reay Smithers.

Following publication, Professor Joubert and the rectorate of the University of Pretoria again encouraged John Skinner to continue with another comprehensive revision, and he collated all newly published information with that in the second edition, placing the emphasis increasingly on the living mammal. This revision, for which more than 1 700 new works were consulted, was completed in 2000.