one of the major land areas of the world defined on the basis of its characteristic animal life. Part of the Paleotropical, or Afro-Tethyan, realm, it encompasses Africa south of the Sahara and the southwestern tip of Arabia. The island of Madagascar is part of the separate Madagascan region. The Ethiopian region has the world's largest concentration of antelopes, giraffes, gorillas, and rhinoceroses, as well as a rich variety of other animals. The vegetational division roughly corresponding to this region is the African division of the Indoafrican subkingdom (which excludes the southern tip of Africa).