Scavenger had briefly to suppress longing (5)
I believe the answer is:
hyena
'scavenger' is the definition.
(animal which scavenges)
'had briefly to suppress longing' is the wordplay.
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'to suppress' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'longing' becomes 'yen' (yen can mean a desire or longing for something).
'had' with its last letter taken away is 'ha'.
'ha' enclosing 'yen' is 'HYENA'.
(Other definitions for hyena that I've seen before include "Afr. doglike carnivore" , "Dog-like carrion-feeding mammal" , "Scavenging carnivore" , "Carnivorous animal with howl like laughter" , "Dog-like carrion eater" .)