Beast sailor found by a lake (6)
I believe the answer is:
jackal
'beast' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'sailor found by a lake' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'jack' (jack can informally mean a sailor).
'found by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'lake' becomes 'L' (geographical abbreviation).
'jack'+'a'+'l'='JACKAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for jackal that I've seen before include "Scavenging animal" , "Nocturnal mammal closely related to the dog" , "Dog-like African and Asian predator" , "Promote extravagantly" , "Dog-like carnivore" .)