Lake in capital for wild cats (8)

'cats' is the definition.
(caracal is a kind of cat)

'lake in capital for wild' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'lake' could be 'l' (geographical abbreviation) and 'l' is found in the answer.
'capital' could be 'caracas' (Caracas is an example) and 'caracas' is located in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?