I hid this near where I found a beautiful corn snake. You get
extra credit if you find the corn snake and post its picture.
Careful. He bites.
Elaphe
guttata
The Latin word elaphe means deerskin; guttata means speckled or
spotted. Both terms apply to corns and rats: in most species, their
skin feels like finely tanned deerskin, while the patterns on their
back create spots or speckles. Some people see the patterning of
the belly scales as resembling maize, a colorful ancestor of our
modern day corn. Another theory relating to how corn snakes got
their name comes from the early Europeans settlers. They frequently
found these snakes in their corn fields and corn cribs, and thought
they were eating the corn! In fact, the corn snakes were, and
remain, very helpful to farmers as they help keep down the rodent
population. Amelanistic corns (those lacking the black and brown
skin coloring) are sometimes called "red rat snakes" because of
their red-to-orange coloring.
Hatchlings range in size from 9-14 inches (22-36 cm); adults are
generally 2.5 to 5 feet 76-152 cm) in length; most are in the 3-4
foot (91-122 cm) range. The average life span of these snakes is 10
years, although one was documented to be 21 years old. Description:
A fairly large : 76-122 cm (30 – 48 in) relatively slender snake
that is orange , reddish brown, brown, or gray with 27-40 squarish
black-margined brown or reddish blotches. The belly is checkered
with white and black markings, resembling a piano keyboard or
Indian corn. Other distinguishing characteristics include a
spear-shaped blotch on top of the head, pointing toward the nose,
black stripes on either side of the bottom of the tail, smooth
scales, and a stripe extending from the back of the eye past the
corner of the jaw.
Corn snakes are often mistaken for venomous copperheads.
Copperheads, however, have hourglass-shaped (rather than square)
blotches, and are generally browner than corn snakes. Habits: Corn
snakes spend most of their time underground or hidden under objects
such as logs, boards, or pieces of roofing tin. They climb well and
young ones are often found hiding under tree bark or climbing in
brush. Corn snakes are active both day and night, but become
primarily nocturnal in the warm summer months. They eat a variety
of mammals, birds, and reptiles, and young snakes are particularly
fond of lizards. Corn snakes lay large clutches of oval eggs in the
spring in rotten logs or other warm, moist places. Natural History
Corns are commonly found in deciduous forests, pine barrens, rocky
hillsides and farm areas over a broad swath of the United States
(Alabama, Arkansas, West central/Southeast Colorado, Delaware,
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Mississippi, Missouri, Southern Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico,
North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Eastern Utah,
Virginia). They have also been reported in Mexico (Chihuahua,
Coahuila, North Durango, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas) and the Cayman
Islands.
Corns are most active at night or in the hours of dawn and dusk
(crepuscular). While they are primarily ground-dwellers, some are
semi-arboreal. While the Elaphes feed on everything ranging from
fish to frogs to rodents to mammals, wild Corns start off feeding
on small invertebrates and vertebrates, such as crickets. Corns lay
eggs, becoming sexually mature at around two years of age.
