Beavers released to help restore river and wetland

BEAVERS have been legally released at two sites in Somerset as part of efforts to restore a river and wetland.

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One release involved a mother and her three children, while the other involved a pair of Eurasian beavers.

They were released across the National Trust's Holnicote Estate on Exmoor in Somerset on Tuesday.

Natural England granted the charity its second licence to release the species into the wild.

The first wild release took place on the National Trust's Purbeck Estate in Dorset in March.

In 2020, beavers were introduced into enclosed areas of the Holnicote Estate.

Ben Eardley, project manager at the National Trust, said: “This is incredibly exciting and is the latest step in our ambitions to restore a huge swathe of Somerset countryside and moorland to help bring back nature.