Throughout these stages, Hanski was drawn to the study of small patches of island-like habitat. At first those patches were dung piles. For a beetle, a pile of dung is an island that must be discovered and, very rapidly, colonized. Hanski used his own feces or dead fish as bait for the beetles. He attracted and trapped them while hiking up and down Mount Mulu in Borneo to understand the general rules governing when numerous species compete for a pile of shit and when few do.

— Never Home Alone by Rob R. Dunn (Page 57 - 58)