Carnivore longing to occupy an area of land (5)
I believe the answer is:
hyena
'carnivore' is the definition.
(I know that hyena is a type of Hyaena)
'longing to occupy an area of land' is the wordplay.
'longing' becomes 'yen' (yen can mean a desire or longing for something).
'to occupy' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters occupy or enter the word).
'an area of land' becomes 'ha' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'yen' inserted into 'ha' is 'HYENA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hyena that I've seen before include "Wild animal" , "Dog-like nocturnal mammal of Africa and southern Asia" , "one may be spotted" , "Dog-like carrion eater" , "he's a laugh" .)