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Corn snake

Pantherophis guttatus · Snakes · Reptiles

Corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus): Large spots down the back, brown and red-orange body (gray and yellow variants occur), belly with a black-and-white checkerboard. Hatchlings paler and duller, 20-35 cm; adults average 70-120 cm. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Corn snake coiled on a wooden stick
Photo by Larisa Steele on Unsplash
Scientific name
Pantherophis guttatus
Family
Colubridae
In North America
Native
Range
Southeastern United States from southern New Jersey to Florida and west through Mississippi to Louisiana; related Great Plains rat snake reaches Illinois, Texas and New Mexico. Not in Canada.
Biology

How to identify it

Large spots down the back, brown and red-orange body (gray and yellow variants occur), belly with a black-and-white checkerboard. [1][2]

Hatchlings paler and duller, 20-35 cm; adults average 70-120 cm. [1][2]

Head narrower than a copperhead's, colour lighter, and spots square-shaped. [1][2]

Compared with the southern copperhead: Corn snake has a narrower head, lighter coloration and square spots. [1][2]

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a corn snake before you act. Compared with the southern copperhead: Corn snake has a narrower head, lighter coloration and square spots.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Pine woodlands, brushy fields, open hardwood forests, rocky areas with crevices and logs, fields, barnyards and abandoned buildings; up to about 1800 m. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Mostly diurnal, crepuscular in warm weather; climbs trees and shrubs, basks on rocks, enters rodent burrows; constricts prey. [1][2]

Over half the diet is rodents (hispid cotton rats, white-footed mice) plus moles, bird eggs, and lizards and frogs in Florida. [1][2]

Hibernates in crevices, logs or caves from about October to April in most of the range, briefly or not at all in the south. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Southeastern United States from southern New Jersey to Florida and west through Mississippi to Louisiana; related Great Plains rat snake reaches Illinois, Texas and New Mexico. Not in Canada.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web