It's a great time of year to meet with the giant Amazonian leech. Its kind is just emerging from the bottom muck, where they dug themselves in to wait out the three-month dry season. They'll be ...

For the first time the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis has been bred in captivity at London zoo, part of a longer-term project to help this fascinating if unloved creature. Once widespread in ...

In Ireland, the leech was driven to extinction in the 19th century. Their vulnerability is recognised in international conventions and biodiversity audits. However, in 1884 leech saliva was ...

A man has been fined C$15,000 ($11,000; £8,800) for trying to smuggle thousands of leeches in his carry-on luggage on a flight from Russia to Canada. Ippolit Bodounov was detained at Toronto's ...

A project in Scotland has successfully hatched the first baby medicinal leeches to help restore their population. Twenty ...

A project set up to boost Scotland's rare population of medicinal leeches has got its first babies. Twenty have hatched in a captive-breeding programme at the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig ...