A family of beavers have successfully been released into the Bedfordshire countryside for the first time in 400 years.

A male, a female and two kits were introduced to the Southill Estate, close to Biggleswade, from the end of February, in a project that was two years in the planning.

The Eurasian beavers are “recognised as ecosystem engineers” and their job is to restore the ecology and use their dam building skills to create drought resilience, said Restore, a nature restoration company that worked on the release.