Maybe there will be bears in the far north. Otherwise the world is full of critters. They just all want to eat you. The npcs we do have are pretty ho hum and counterintuitive, like why would the only nice guys be ones we have to kill? Not sure this team is one that would do a great job at what you want from what we have seen so far.

Would also like to see some critters but maybe only ones that might actually have existed, like early sheep, goats, ponies, (not rideable) maybe, squirrels, nothing too exotic or out of sync with history. And of course they would have to hate us, like the pigs, or be very afraid like the deer. But the devs have already stated they want to keep stuff useful so there would need to be a reason for them to be there which would mean a game overhaul; unlikely at this time. Guess would have to leave it up to a clever modder.