Fruit taken by river vessel diverts animals (14)

'animals' is the definition.
The answer is an example.

'fruit taken by river vessel diverts' is the wordplay.
'fruit' becomes 'hip' (I have seen 'Fruit of rose ' mean 'hip' so perhaps 'fruit' could also mean 'hip').
'taken by' says to put letters next to each other.
'river' becomes 'po' (Italian river).
'vessel' becomes 'pot' (pot is a kind of vessel).
'diverts' becomes 'amuses' ('amuse' can be a synonym of 'divert').
'hip'+'po'+'pot'+'amuses'='HIPPOPOTAMUSES'