Discerned animal group's sound (5)
I believe the answer is:
heard
'discerned' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with perception as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'animal group's sound' is the wordplay.
'animal group' becomes 'herd' (herd is a kind of animal group).
'sound' shows a homophone (sound like).
'herd' is a homophone of 'HEARD'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for heard that I've seen before include "Tried" , "Detected aurally" , "Picked up by the ears?" , "Attended to" , "Received aurally" .)