Crossword Genius

Animal better left in two areas sent north (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

alpaca

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'animal' is the definition.
(South American animal)

'better left in two areas sent north' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'left' could be 'al' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'al' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'paca' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for alpaca that I've seen before include "creature of the Andes" , "Llama with long silky hair" , "woollen fabric" , "(Woollen cloth from) relative of llama" , "Domesticated llama with long silky fleece" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun.
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