First of leopardesses in hollow to give birth (5)
I believe the answer is:
calve
'give birth' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'first of leopardesses in hollow' is the wordplay.
'first of' indicates taking the first letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'hollow' becomes 'cave' (caving is a kind of hollowing).
The first letter of 'leopardesses' is 'l'.
'l' placed within 'cave' is 'CALVE'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for calve that I've seen before include "Bear on farm" , "create seal" , "Produce a young cow" , "Give birth to a young bovine" , "Release baby animal" .)