Over a thousand tapir — wingless animals (5)
I believe the answer is:
okapi
'over a thousand tapir wingless animals' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'over a thousand tapir wingless' is the wordplay.
'over' becomes 'o' (cricket abbreviation).
'a thousand' becomes 'K' (K can mean thousand, e.g. 10k).
'wingless' means to look at the middle letters (the wings or sides of the letters are removed).
The centre of 'tapir' is 'api'.
'o'+'k'+'api'='OKAPI'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for okapi that I've seen before include "creature" , "Animal, a sort of zebra/giraffe cross" , "Animal of central Africa" , "Native of Central Africa" , "Wild animal" .)