When I first started
working at World Bird Sanctuary I was not very knowledgeable about snakes and
was not very interested in them either.
Over the years I became
more acquainted with the different types of education snakes in our Office of
Wildlife Learning Nature Center.
We have a Green-tree Python, Albino Burmese Python, Colombian Boa
Constrictor, two Bull Snakes, a Royal Python, and a Creamsicle Corn Snake, Pantherophis
guttatus, which I must admit is my
favorite. She is so friendly and
beautiful! I know you’ll fall in
love with her too after you read this blog about her and her species. Her name is Maize and I think she is
just a wonderful animal!
Corn Snakes are found in
the eastern and southeastern areas of the United States; they are carnivores,
which means they eat other animals. Their diet in the wild varies, depending on
age and surroundings. Young Corn
Snakes feed on lizards and tree frogs, but adult Corn Snakes will eat bats,
birds, mice and rats. In
captivity, they are fed rats or mice, depending on their size. Maize is given frozen then thawed mice, and she loves to eat! She snatches the first one very quickly
from the food tongs and swallows it whole. With the others, she generally takes her time but will eat
all the mice we offer her. We
normally give her 5-6 mice depending on their size, and we feed Maize once
every two weeks. She is currently
4 feet long. Corn Snakes can reach
up to 6 feet in length and up to 300-400 grams (approximately 10.5 – 15 oz.)
and are usually orange to brownish-yellow, with large, black-edged red blotches
in the middle of their back. They
have kernel shaped markings that look like Indian corn, or maize, on their
belly, and that’s how they came by their name.
Nesting sites include
rotting stumps, or piles of decaying vegetation. The clutch (group of eggs)
size ranges from 10-30 oblong white eggs.
The eggs are laid during May through July and then hatch during July through
September. The hatchlings are only 10-16 inches long. The parents do not care for them at all. The female simply lays the eggs and
leaves. Lifespan in captivity is
23-25 years and 4-5 years in the wild.
Maize is 3 years old this year.
She was hatched in 2011 by a Missouri snake breeder. Maize came to WBS to be an education
animal. She travels and appears in
many World Bird Sanctuary educational programs, including Reptales, Birdday
parties, Amazing Animal Encounters, and many more!
Corn
Snakes come in numerous natural color morphs, such as Normal (wildtype), Miami
Phase, Okeetee, Candycane, Reverse Okeetee, Fluorescent orange, Sunglow,
Bloodred, Crimson, Anerythristic, Charcoal, Caramel, Lavender, Cinder,
Kastanie, Hypomelanistic, Ultra, Ultramel, Dilute, Sunkissed, Lava, and
Stargazing. There are also
different pattern morphs, such as Motley, Stripe, Diffusion, Sunkissed, Aztec,
Zigzag, and Banded. All these
natural color morphs make corn snakes camouflaged in their environment, for
they are preyed upon by many mammals and birds of prey. There are also compound morphs, which
are produced by captive breeders by placing certain natural color morphs
together. There are tens of
thousands of compound morphs, but I'm only going to list a few of the most
popular ones. These include Snow,
Blizzard, Ghost, Phantom, Pewter, Butter, Amber, Plasma, Opal, Granite, and
Fire.
And
finally there are hybrids, meaning captive breeders cross corn snakes with other snakes in the Pantherophis,
Lampropeltis, or Pituophis family.
These corn snakes can produce color and pattern variations called
Jungle, Tri color Jungle Corns, Turbo Corn, Brook Korn, and finally, a
Creamsicle Corn snake, which is what our Maize is.
So,
as you can see from above, there are many different types out there. Creamsicle Corn Snakes are a hybrid that
is the result of breeding an Emory’s Rat snake with an albino Corn Snake. I recommend looking online to see the
other color morphs that are out there.
Below is a picture of Maize and some other ones:
Maize
is available for adoption in our Adopt a “Bird” (in this case “Snake”)
program. To find out more
information, call 636-861-3225.
All adoption donations are tax deductible. This season she can be seen at the Nature Center at the
World Bird Sanctuary which is open daily from 8am-5pm.
Maize
is a very beautiful snake. You can
even pet her! Just ask one of the
Naturalists.
Submitted by Lisbeth Hodges, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist
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