Crossword Genius

Animal from mountain area: tailless cat (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

alpaca

'animal' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'mountain area tailless cat' is the wordplay.
'mountain' becomes 'alp' (alp is a kind of mountain**).
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'tailless' means to remove the last letter.
'cat' with its last letter taken away is 'ca'.
'alp'+'a'+'ca'='ALPACA'

'from' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for alpaca that I've seen before include "Llama with long silky hair" , "S American animal related to llana" , "Fabric from wool of S American llama" , "Llama relation" , "South American relative of the llama" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph and The Guardian.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app