Once you acquire good research skills, you can apply those skills to support many endeavors. Recently, I have been doing risk assessment matrices for Business Continuity and Emergency Response planning.
One such job involved identifying the risks to a Business Continuity site. This site was in a rural area outside a large city. I collected the usual maps, aerial imagery, and satellite imagery of the site. This revealed a zoo was nearby. This led to the examination of a risk that few would normally consider — wild animals.
While the predatory carnivores such as lions and tigers seemed to be the greatest risk, we also learned that the large non-carnivores owned by zoos and feral livestock can be very destructive, especially to the fencing intended to keep out the carnivores.
You might not think this would be a risk, but just think of why a Business Continuity site might be in full operation and the risk become obvious. It would be operating due to a black swan event and that would probably entail the failure of normal utilities and services. Many of these animals would eventually escape due to broken fencing or be released to fend for themselves. The prospect of a number of large cats or grizzly bears loose near the site sparked a search for some very strong fencing.
This led us to examine which animals would be the most dangerous over a two year period. The most dangerous animals soon after a catastrophe would be feral dog packs followed by any domesticated pigs let loose and feral hogs. Neither of these animals are afraid of people and in a major disaster they might resort to feeding on corpses which would make a living person also look like a good meal. Hogs and pigs also represented the biggest risk to the fencing.
After the dogs and hogs, the greatest risk seemed to be Grizzly Bears. These animals are dangerous predators that are not afraid of man and they are adapted to the North American climate. The next was the lions and tigers. Next came the lesser cats and canids if they escaped from the zoo. In the two year span none of these zoo animals seemed to present a great risk if recent history in war zones is any guide.
Along with the dogs and hogs, it seemed that vermin such as rats and mice would be the constant threats, not the exotic creatures from the zoo.