Baby beavers have been born in urban London for the first time in more than 400 years, a conservation project said.

The family of Eurasian beavers were introduced to a nature reserve in Ealing, west London, in October as part of a project that aims to get the public to engage with nature, to study biodiversity improvements and to monitor flood mitigation effects.

Project leaders said the fact that at least two babies, or kits as they are called, had been born on the Paradise Fields site in Greenford showed the beavers were “happy” with the habitat.

Dr Sean McCormack, one of the volunteers behind the project, said he and the other volunteers were “totally over the moon, thrilled, excited”.