It seems like after a certain amount of years (around 30) only large animals will spawn (mostly) such as horses, lions etc, especially If you go further out on the map. This obviously leads to starvation for carnivores and I'm not sure if there is a strategy around it besides unlocking new animals.

Is it even possible to fight against these larger animals as a beginner animal or is it just focused on slowly making your way up to unlock larger animals to get further? How do you feel about, do you think it's annoying or fair? I'm just interested to see opinions on this, thanks.

Nothing is doomed past 30 years, there will always be small enough prey up until year 60, after that mid level predators are doomed and even high end predators except for the absolute top are going to have a difficult time. Use your map to look for more food, avoid Yaminote Line West if you don't have a challenge objective there. With Herbivores I'm pretty sure you could randomly get all the way to year 100 regardless of your type (though speed is helpful), or you could die randomly on year 0 since you're so damn fragile.

@NekuSakuraba said:

...Is it even possible to fight against these larger animals as a beginner animal...

If you have a pack you can press and hold Triangle and it will make the pack attack whatever is attacking you, I've managed to take down a Lion and its cubs with a pack of 4 Beagles (and some perseverance of course).

With the smaller predators you will need a pack, or a lot of healing items.