The new arrivals are a boost for conservation project.

Conservationists are celebrating the birth of three kits at two different beaver enclosures on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in Somerset, as numbers continue to increase following the re-introduction of the species at the sites in 2020.

One kit has been born in the ‘Paddock’s’ enclosure, the fourth kit to be born there in the past three years. Rashford was born in 2021, the first kit to be born on the estate in around 400 years, followed last year by twins Toone and Russo. All three were named after England football players following a public vote.

This summer has also seen twins born at the ‘Whiteman’s Moor’ enclosure, a few miles away on another part of the Holnicote Estate, much of which is in the Exmoor National Park. The pair of kits are the first offspring of Lily and Bulrush and have been seen on camera playing and riding on their parents’ backs.

A public vote will be held via the National Trust’s social media accounts to name the three new kits.

Beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK around 400 years ago, but have been the focus of re-introduction efforts in recent years, despite some concerns being raised about their potential impact on farmland, the surrounding environment, and other species.

Their dam building is seen by conservationists as an important way to naturally manage landscapes, creating habitats for other wildlife and helping change water levels to reduce the risks posed by flooding.

George Layton, a National Trust ranger at Holnicote, said: “The habitat within the beaver sites is already much healthier than before their introduction and is absolutely brimming with wildlife.

“Beavers are brilliant creatures that through their ‘engineering’ create new ponds, leave standing deadwood – the rarest type of deadwood, where dead trees and branches remain rooted into the ground, forming vitally important habitats for invertebrates – as well as opening up fantastic glades where more light can hit the woodland floor so beetles, butterflies and even water voles can thrive.”

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