Crossword Genius

Young creature dying after taking lion’s head for its tail! (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

yearling

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'its tail' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'young creature dying after taking lion's head' is the wordplay.
'young' becomes 'y'.
'creature dying' becomes 'earing' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'after taking' indicates putting letters inside.
'head' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'lions' is 'l'.
'earing' going around 'l' is 'earling'.
'y'+'earling'='YEARLING'

'for' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for yearling that I've seen before include "A racehorse under 2" , "Animal between 1 and 2 in age" , "Animal in its second year" , "Sort of racehorse" , "Animal 12 months old" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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