At length, this creature maybe can do with half a banana (8)
I believe the answer is:
anaconda
'at length this creature' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'maybe can do with half a banana' is the wordplay.
'maybe' indicates anagramming the letters.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'half a' suggests halving the letters.
'banana' with half the letters taken is 'ana'.
'can'+'do'='cando'
'cando' is an anagram of 'conda'.
'conda' put after 'ana' is 'ANACONDA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for anaconda that I've seen before include "Water boa" , "cold-blooded killer" , "Large snake of tropical S America" , "1 of 21 [SNAKES]" , "One can get crush on" .)