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Beavers in Yorkshire may have helped reduce the risk of flooding in a Yorkshire town after building England's largest beaver dam.

The water loving rodents are famous for their big front teeth and the ability to build dams for rivers and streams.

The creatures have been introduced to a Yorkshire forest to see whether they can help maintain man-made dams.

They live upstream from Pickering, a town which has been flooded four times in the last 25 years, so scientists wondered if they could help.

How are beavers helping?

Beavers are known for their engineering skills which they use to help protect their homes - called lodges.

The rodents build dams to create deeper pools of water attached to rivers or streams to help them get around.

The dams also help other wildlife like frogs, insects and otters and can be very useful for humans too.

Beavers became extinct in the UK in the 1500s because of hunting but scientists have been reintroducing them to parts of the UK over the last decade.

Would the town flood without the beaver's help?

Experts say the beavers may be helping towards stopping the town of Pickering from flooding, but it's unlikely to completely stop floods.

Cath Bashford, an ecologist, says "the beaver dams are having an impact in slowing the flow of the water travelling through the site" which she says "could have an impact on reducing the risk of flooding downstream"

What they're mostly interested in is whether beavers can maintain a dam already built by humans.

People built the dam on the stream originally, but if beavers can fix it and keep it working for longer it's a bonus for everyone.

Scientists say they'll continue to keep an eye on the creatures beavering away as part of a five year study to see what impact they'll have on the area.