"I'm scared to take on most wildlife. I get nearly killed when I try." - as i said above, u got some troubles just cause ur stats/skills/equipment not high enough. U should check wiki to learn what is required to take down prey that u wish to attack. U need some understanding of combat mechanics too ofc - but it will be gained after reading wiki and killing some animals in fights (ants is very good prey for this btw). Horse gives character overwhelming mobility aggainst most of prey and must be gained before u start ur hunting (at least tame some wild horse with clover temporarily). In conclusion - ur troubles with hunting animals it's not even early game - it's troubles of starting playing period, when player just have too small amount of game knowledge and experience.
Firstly, before any changes will be done to hunting with bow, archery itself here should be radically changed - like i proposed here for example - viewtopic.php?f=48&t=60496
Second - AI behaviour of animals should be improved - right now they are just mobs which just wandering around aimlessly in most times and pretend to look like wild animals (bug when they just stand on place while being shoot by unreachable target can be cured during this in natual way).
Third - strength of animals of same type should be randomized to add risk element in each hunt and make players depends on range weapons more in PVE (at least to check prey strength before attack in meele or weaken it). For example it can be done with q of prey as i proposed above, or wild animals of same type may have some small differences which may tell to experienced hunter their age and approximated strength.
Only after all this changes any trying to turn wild animals hunt (hunting with bow including) into something complex and difficult will have at least some sense.