Bagot goats return to Cromer cliffs for summer job

The council says they carry out an important "habitat-management role"

A herd of goats have returned to their "summer job", grazing on cliffs on the Norfolk coast, in what the council describes as "an important habitat-management role".

The Bagot goats are bred and reared by North Norfolk District Council and let loose on the Cromer cliffs each year.

Their job is to maintain the vegetation in an area the council said would be difficult to manage with machinery.

An eight-strong herd arrived in 2016 but there are now more than 20 goats.

The district council estimated that using the goats saved about £15,000 each year in clifftop maintenance.

The Bagot goats graze on vegetation in difficult-to-access parts of the Cromer cliffs

Councillor Nigel Lloyd said: "We're delighted to see the goats return to Cromer for their important summer job - just in time for the arrival of visitors and tourists to the town.

"Throughout winter, they have been bringing their unique conservation skills to land around Norfolk, helping maintain landscapes in natural ways that's a technical challenge for humans, but so natural and instinctive to them.

"It's great to see they were greeted by an audience, their return, like every year, is long awaited by both our residents and visitors and the cliffs themselves."

The council says the habitat management would prove difficult with "machine-operated conservation"

The goats, it said, were well-loved by local people and tourists at the seaside town, and a range of goat-inspired merchandise had been produced.

This herd first came to the town in 2016, with eight goats

There are now 30, with 12 returning to the cliffs this year to carry out the habitat control.