Crossword Genius

Heartless scavenging animal returning cry of pain without care (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

anyhow

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'without care' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'heartless scavenging animal returning cry of pain' is the wordplay.
'heartless' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'scavenging animal' becomes 'hyena' (I've seen this before).
'returning' says the letters should be written backwards.
'cry of pain' becomes 'ow' (I've seen this in other clues).
'hyena' with its centre taken out is 'hyna'.
'hyna' backwards is 'anyh'.
'anyh'+'ow'='ANYHOW'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for anyhow that I've seen before include "Randomly - at least" , "casually" , "No matter what" , "In whatever way" , "In a careless manner" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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