Home around North trailed by a creature (5)
I believe the answer is:
panda
'a creature' is the definition.
(panda is a type of creature)
'home around north trailed' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'pad' (I've seen this before).
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'north' becomes 'n' ('N' can be a synonym of 'north').
'trailed' becomes 'a' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'pad' enclosing 'n' is 'pand'.
'pand'+'a'='PANDA'
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for panda that I've seen before include "See 17" , "WWF symbol" , "Large black-and-white herbivorous mammal" , "Exotic animal" , "shoots lover" .)