First couple in parade endangered animal (5)
I believe the answer is:
panda
'endangered animal' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'first couple in parade' is the wordplay.
'first couple' means two substitutions for 'first'.
'first' becomes 'a' (first letter of the alphabet).
'first' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'in parade' becomes 'pand' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a' put after 'pand' is 'PANDA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for panda that I've seen before include "Raccoon-like animal" , "Black and white Chinese bear" , "Bearcat" , "Bamboo-eating animal" , "Black and white beast" .)