During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, early explorers and hunters such as Temminck and Wahlberg collected biological specimens in southern Africa, which were then sent back to the major museums of Europe, such as the Natural History Museum in London (previously known as the British Museum of Natural History). Within the past few decades, mammalogists including Knud Andersen, Wim Bergmans, J. L. Eger, D. L. Harrison, R. W. Hayman, J. Eric Hill, J. Edwards Hill, J. Kingdon, D. Kock, K. F. Koopman, R. L. Peterson, D. R. Rosevear and O. Thomas, have done an excellent job of making much sense out of these invaluable historical collections, and have published taxonomic and biogeographical treatises in books, checklists and journals.

In the early twentieth century, local mammalogists, notably G. C. Shortridge, W. L. Sclater, and A. Roberts, worked prodigiously to build up collections of southern African bats and other mammals (Smithers 1984). Their researches were part of broader faunal surveys and research, especially of the mammals of the region. Many benefited directly and in kind from the devotion of Sir John Ellerman, a most studious researcher of the world's rodents. A significant milestone was the publication of Southern African Mammals 1758–1951: A Reclassification (Ellerman et al. 1953), which remains a valuable reference for the mammalian taxonomist. This tradition was continued in the latter part of the twentieth century by several biologists – notably Reay H. N. Smithers, J. A. J. ‘Waldo’ Meester, R. C. Wood and W. Frank H. Ansell made invaluable collections of bats and many other mammals. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Smithsonian Institution initiated groundbreaking surveys of African mammals in at least 13 African countries; the vast collections obtained are a testimony to many dedicated field collectors, including Tim N. Liversedge and John Herbert in southern Africa (Schmidt et al. 2008). This led to the compilation of the authoritative The Mammals of Africa: An Identification Manual, under the editorship of Waldo Meester and H. W. Setzer between 1971 and 1977 – the chapter on Chiroptera by Robert W. Hayman and J. Edwards Hill still includes the most up-to-date identification keys available for much of Africa.