A beaver couple have made history with their new arrivals.

Two baby beavers, known as kits, at the Knepp Estate in Horsham are the first to be born in Sussex for more than 500 years.

Proud parents Brooke and Banksy have been at Knepp since February last year and staff at the wilding project were optimistic they would breed this year.

The pair were released into a licensed enclosure where they have created dams, built their own lodge and coppiced the surrounding woodland.

Beavers began to be reintroduced into England after a successful trial was carried out in Devon.

The animal has been introduced into enclosured areas in several parts of the country since, including on the Lowther Estate in Cumbria, in Kent, Essex and the Forest of Dean.

Beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK around 500 years ago.

Penny Green, ecologist at the Knepp Estate, said: “We were so thrilled, it’s the first time in 500 years that we can say that beavers have been born in Sussex.

“There’s an amazing movement going on.

“We’ve had Brooke and Banksy for about 18 months.

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“They were really young animals so we thought this was the first year they might breed.

“We saw some really positive signs that they were taking green shoots and we thought they were taking back food and then we saw the kits out and about.”

The baby beavers, who are yet to be named, will eventually be “shooed” off by their parents and Ms Green hopes they can by released into the wider estate.

“That would be the most wonderful thing,” she said.

She also expressed her hopes that Brooke and Banksy will breed again next year, by which time the young beavers will be able to help out with caring for any new arrivals.

Ms Green spoke of the benefits beavers bring to the ecosystem.

“A missing part of our rewilding project was beavers, they are great ecosystem engineers,” she said.

 “It has meant a huge resurgence in wildlife.

“They create wonderful opportunities for us as humans.

"They help alleviate the effects of flooding, by slowing the flow following heavy rainfall, they help the landscape hold on to water during drought conditions and sequester carbon with their dams.

“We are so thrilled to be able to bring them back. We hope in the future we may be able to release them under licence.”