Many of us will only have ever seen a leech on television when some daredevil of a presenter will allow him or herself to be bitten for the sake of scientific curiosity and presumably a fat pay cheque.

Leeches are far from uncommon in the natural world and anyone equipped with a net and a plastic tray would be able to find one easily by sweeping the net through a patch of aquatic vegetation in any of the district's pools or streams.

There are a few dozen different species of leech and fortunately, from a people perspective only one of these is a possible hazard - the medical leech.

These days, due to habitat loss, the medical leech is somewhat of a rarity with only a few areas of the country left where it can be found.

Fortunately or, unfortunately depending on your point of view, Wyre Forest is not one of those places. The medical leech gets it name for its long-standing, and in the past not too therapeutic, use by practitioners of the medical profession.

Even today, it is used medically to encourage blood circulation in severe injures.

The medical leech is one of Britain's largest leeches at 15cm in length, but one of its close colleagues, the horse leech, can also reach these dimensions and it does live within the Wyre Forest district.

The last time I encountered one was in Springfield Park in the heart of Kidderminster. These creatures certainly have a fearsome appearance as they are armed with biting jaws and sharp teeth.

Thankfully, this combination is not sufficient to penetrate human, horse or indeed any other mammal's flesh and it spends its life hunting prey consisting of earthworms, midge larvae and snails.

If you do handle one of these leeches be warned, as they have a powerful sucker on each end, which they use to move about and if they clamp these onto you they can be difficult to remove.

Both of the above named leeches are members of the jawed leech family, but there is also another family of leeches, the so-called fish leeches.

These use a long proboscis to bore into their prey to drain their blood and once again, they are no threat to us mammals.

There are species that attack waterfowl by invading their nasal passages and when a multiple infestation occurs this can even cause death.