Do we have any accounts of Europeans encountering American animals for the first time? How did they describe these animals and what did they think of them. It must have been terryifying encountering an aligator or a bison for the first time.
While there's always more to say on the subject, you might be interested in u/sunagainstgold's previous answer to What did European settlers think of the alligators?. I'd also recommend sun's related discussion on Were early European visitors to the New World puzzled to find familiar species, like bears and wolves, living there?.