VIDEO: Baby beavers have their first swimming lesson

England’s only wild beavers have had babies, conservationists have said.

Footage filmed on the River Otter in Devon shows youngsters, known as kits, taking their first swimming lessons and hitching a ride with mum through the water.

The colony of beavers, which has been living wild on the river for at least three years and possibly up to a decade, was re-released on to the Otter earlier this year after being captured and tested for disease.

Wildlife groups back the return of the aquatic mammals, which manage the landscape by cutting down trees and damming rivers, for the benefit they can provide in preventing flooding, maintaining water quality and boosting other wildlife.

But farmers and anglers have raised concerns that they can damage the landscape and fish migration routes, and conservation efforts should be focused on the UK’s existing wildlife.