Game reserve

I made a surprising discovery today-- we`ve got lions living in our hangar (what the French call an open-fronted barn). Before you all panic or think perhaps the problem is rather that I`ve got bats in the belfry, I had better explain that I am referring to Ant Lions, though if you were an ant you would find these mini-
predators as redoubtable as we find the larger version.
   To start at the beginning, as I was parking the car in the hangar, I became aware of several small funnel-shaped pits in the dust at the side.  At first I thought water had been dripping through the roof, but in view of the drought conditions at the moment this struck me as unlikely. Then I realised that these were ant-lion burrows or rather traps. I have never seen these either in France or England, but I recognised them from Gerald Durrel`s description in his `My family and other animals`.
  The ant-lion is a cunning predator of ants.  It digs a funnel-shaped pit about 3 inches across with steep sides. When its prey, the unfortunate ant, accidentally wanders into the trap, it finds itself slipping down towards the bottom where the lion is concealed. Grains of sand are displaced which alerts the lion. To make sure of its prey, it throws a stream of sand particles at it, which inevitably leads to the ant losing its footing and tumbling into the claws of the lion.
  To test my theory I displaced some sand on the side of one of the craters with a straw and sure enough, a shower of sand was hurled up by an unseen form at the centre. Claws could be vaguely seen. Really quite sinister and I`m glad I`m not an ant.
   Yet another exotic piece of nature which adds interest to living in this fascinating part of the World!