A beaver baby boom is under way across Britain this summer in places where the species had been extinct for centuries.

From Ealing in London to the Cairngorms in Scotland, and from Canterbury in Kent to the Wallington Estate in Northumberland, new kits have emerged from their lodges for an after-dark dip in the water.

At Paradise Fields in Ealing, at least two kits have appeared just eight months after the pioneering reintroduction of a five-member beaver family in an urban area. Beavers were once permanent residents of London and much of the country.