Cute and rare wild animal (8)

I believe the answer is:

creature

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'animal' is the definition.
(I know that animal can be written as creature)

I don't understand how the remainder of the clue works.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for creature that I've seen before include "Bird, beast or fish" , "Bird, beast, insect etc" , "Living being" , "Animal or beast" , "Animal or person" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun and The Times.

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