WILDLIFE conservationists in the North-East launch a bid today to fill a rarely-advertised post.

The successful applicant will join a select band of workers who tend wild goats for a living.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust is seeking a wildlife ranger to act as goatherd in a 4,000-acre Whitelee Nature Reserve, near Carter Bar, on the English side of the border with Scotland.

Whitelee is the largest wildlife trust-managed reserve in England, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and includes its own herd of semiwild, or feral, goats. The 75-strong Kielder Herd is one of three in Northumberland and only about a dozen still roaming free in the British Isles.

Trust chief executive Alec Coles said the reserve will be more than just a sanctuary

"It will also be a working farm, with grazing sheep and cattle.

"We are seeking someone to take on a job much wider than just goatherding, as important as that is.

"The job will involve managing the reserve, controlling some of the pests that threaten the more rare breeding birds, as well as herding the goats."

Angus Lunn, trust vice-chairman, said: "No one knows how long the Kielder Herd has been there, but there have been goats in Northumberland from before medieval times.

"The herd wanders over Whitelee and Forestry Commission land at the adjoining Kielder Forest."

Applicants should contact the trust, at Garden House, St Nicholas Park, Gosforth, Newcastle, NE3 3XT, or ring 0191-284 6884.