Video notes:


Snakes ‘N’ Adders
Introducing Series
Episode: 48 – Corn Snakes; a in depth look
(Pantherophis guttatus)

• First described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766 as Coluber Guttatus (Spotted Snake)
• As always went through a number of changes of genus and species (29 changes in total). In that time has been a member of Elaphe, Scotophis, Coryphodon and Elaphis. Before settling on its current home. Pantherophis.
• Pantherophis guttatus translates as Spotted Panther (like) snake.
• This is a medium sized Rat Snake usually maturing to around 5ft. Claims are made pretty regularly about 6ft+ animals but I would take these with a pinch of salt. Would be keeper should expect a snake that matures to between 3.5 and 4.5ft in length.
• Corn Snakes utilize constriction to subdue their prey. Over generations of captivity however this behaviour seems to be leaving them.
• Corn Snakes occur on the South Eastern Seaboard of the United States. They are known to occur in 10 states including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey, Alabama, Mississippi and Southern Tennessee.
• The majority of their natural range would be considered coast plain with a sea level below 50m.
• They have been recorded at up to heights of around 750m.
• This accounts for the Appalachian Mountains of Georgia and regions of the Carolinas.
• LOOK AT THE MAP AND SHOW THE CHANGES IN ELEVATION.
• Corn Snakes across their entire range occur mainly in Pine Forests although other woods do occur. These are:
• LOOK AT THE MAP AND LIST THE FOREST TYPES IN THEIR LOCALITY.
• Corn Snakes are highly adaptable to the environment they find themselves in, being equally at home in the harsh pine barrens of New Jersey or the subtropical swamp of Southern Florida and tropical grassland and forest of the lower Florida Keys.
• This is one of the defining reasons why Corn Snakes have been so successful in captivity. Adaptability. More troublesome is the fact they are willing to survive in some outright wrong or dangerous rigs as well. Furthering the numpty brigades cause. If they weren’t so damn durable the arguments of the advancement lobby would have carried so much more weight.
• This range from north to south is a little over 1800km as the crow flies (Newark to Key Largo)
• East to West from North Carolina to Mississippi is 1000km roughly.
• CORN SNAKES ARE OFTEN ONLY ASSOCIATED WITH FLORIDA (PARTICULARLY IN THE UK) – AS WE CAN SEE THIS IS ERRONEOUS. SHOW ON MAP.
• Corn Snakes are now a species on their own but were once grouped with Great Plains Rat Snakes and the Rosy Rat Snake. The Great Plains was elevated to its own species status and the Rosy Rat Snake was rolled in with the Corn Snake.
• Slowinski’s Corn Snake now is recognised to occur in the area previously denoted as the hybridisation zone for Great Plains and Corn Snakes.
• Intermontana snakes occur much further North and West than the other subspecies and are truly isolated from other populations.
• Natural localities exist. You will see these in captivity. They loosely follow a set of rules about how that locale should look. Of course we can’t confirm they are from this locale merely that they look like the wild snakes from that locale. These include ‘Carolina Corns’ (incidently the type locality being south Carolina, ‘Miami Corns’ and ‘Okeetee’ Corns.
• Amelanistic Corn Snakes born without black pigment became the entrance to the rabbit hole most if not all Corn Snake keepers have disappeared down. With so many people keeping and breeding Corn Snakes animals with genetic aberrancies were bound to show up. Intially these also included Anerythrystic and hypomelanistic. This was then the birth of the combo.
• BRIEF EXPLAINATION OF GENETICS.
• NORMAL TO AMELANISTIC
• HET TO HET
• ¼ AMEL 66% POSS HET
• TAKE TWO RECESSIVE AND THE ODDS LENGTHEN
• AMEL TO ANERY
• 100% DOUBLE HET
• ONLY 1 IN 16 STATISTICALLY WILL BE A SNOW.
• THE BIRTH OF HIGH VALUE, SOUGHT AFTER SNAKES.
• Discuss the base morphs now in existence.
• show the combos and market names now in exists.
• Finally we need to look at the natural climate and variations for the Corn Snake. Whilst there is a pattern to follow, nuanced change between localities is the be expected. Florida is an aberrancy compared to the rest especially when we consider rainfall.
• BRUMATION
• REPRODUCTION (HYBRIDISATION) – TURBO, JUNGLE, PUEB
• GESTATION
• OVIPOSITION
• INCUBATION
• HATCHING
• ESTABLISHMENT OF BABIES.