Dangerous animal caught, nothing retarding cycles (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
king cobra
'dangerous animal' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for king cobra that I've seen before include "Large venomous hooded snake" , "Hooded giant" , "enormous snake" , "Large Asiatic snake" , "venomous customer" .)