The corn snake is beneficial to humans[7] because it helps to control populations of wild rodent pests that damage crops and spread disease.

[11] The natural corn snake is usually orange or brown bodied with large red blotches outlined in black down their backs.

[18] In the wild, the corn snake prefers habitats such as overgrown fields, forest openings, trees, palmetto flatwoods, and abandoned or seldom-used buildings and farms, from sea level to as high as 6,000 ft (1,800 m).

Typically, the corn snake remains on the ground until the age of four months but can ascend trees, cliffs, and other elevated surfaces.

[23] It has been found that corn snakes (along with other colubrids) reach sexual maturity by means of size, as opposed to age.

[citation needed] Egg-laying occurs slightly more than a month after mating, with 12–24 eggs deposited into a warm, moist, hidden location.

Corn snakes are temperate zone colubrids, and share a reproductive pattern where females increase their feeding during summer and fall.

Corn snakes demonstrate nocturnal patterns, and use the warm ground at night to thermoregulate, therefore heat mats replicate this source.

[30][31] A study conducted by Dr. David Holzman of the University of Rochester in 1999 found that snakes' capacity for spatial learning rivals those of birds and rodents.

[32] Holzman challenged the typical testing method that was being used by biologists to examine snakes' navigational abilities, claiming the structure of the arena itself was biologically in favor of rodents.

He hypothesized that if the typical arena being used to test the animals was modified to cater to snakes' instinctive goals, thus providing them with problem sets that they would likely encounter in their natural environment, this would give a more accurate view of their intelligence.

The study involved testing 24 captive-bred corn snakes, placing them in an open tub with walls too high for them to climb out.

An intense light was positioned to shine directly on the arena, exploiting the snake's natural aversion to bright open spaces.

The study found that when given the incentive of finding shelter, the snakes exhibited an acute ability to learn and navigate their surroundings.

[35] After many generations of selective breeding, captive bred corn snakes are found in a wide variety of different colors and patterns.

These result from recombining the dominant and recessive genes that code for proteins involved in chromatophore development, maintenance, or function.