Show the den I contrived to trap one animal in (8)
I believe the answer is:
indicate
'show' is the definition.
('indicate' can be a synonym of 'show')
'the den i contrived to trap one animal in' is the wordplay.
'contrived' indicates anagramming the letters.
'to trap' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'animal' becomes 'cat' (I've seen this before**).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'den'+'i'='deni'
'deni' anagrammed gives 'inde'.
'inde' going around 'i' is 'indie'.
'indie' placed around 'cat' is 'INDICATE'.
(Other definitions for indicate that I've seen before include "Point out, make known" , "Point out, suggest" , "Point, show, signal" , "Make a signal" , "Mark" .)