Animal lover's heart captured by motorists on road next to animal sanctuary (8)
I believe the answer is:
aardvark
'animal' is the definition.
(aardvark is a kind of animal)
'motorists on road next to animal sanctuary' is the wordplay.
'motorists' becomes 'aa' (I've seen this in other clues).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'road' becomes 'rd' (abbreviation).
'next to' becomes 'v' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'animal sanctuary' becomes 'ark' (as in Noah's Ark).
'aa'+'rd'+'v'+'ark'='AARDVARK'
'lover's heart captured by' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for aardvark that I've seen before include "Ant-eating mammal" , "Burrowing insectivore" , "Termite-eating animal of Africa" , "among Chambers' top words!" , "Long-nosed antbear" .)