Home Ranges:
Although not consistently moving throughout the entire year, northern pinesnakes have been found to traverse hundreds of meters in a day with one snake even moving as far as 1200 m a day and another moving 665 m in under 4.5 hours during spring and summer months (Gerald G.W et al., 2006)! Burmese pythons have been documented moving average daily distances of 0.04 km to 0.18 km (Hart, K. M at al., 2015), and eastern indigo snakes have been shown to have home ranges of 0.44 km – 0.76 km in females and 1.56 km – 2.02 km in males.
| Species | Home range | Source |
| Lataste’s viper (Vipera latastei) | 0.24 ha-1.52 ha | Brito (2003) |
| Northern pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus) | 59.9 ha with core areas averaging 7.9 ha, snakes traveled 273 m per move | Gerald et al. (2006) |
| Great Plains rat snake (Elaphe guttata emoryi) | 3.98 ha-26.95 ha (average of 10.17 ha) | Sperry & Taylor (2008) |
| Black pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi) | 92-396 ha, with single movement events of 338m | Baxley and Qualis (2009) |
| Timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) | 21.1 ha-39 ha | Hamilton (2009) |
| Florida pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus mugitus) | 59.2 ± 50.8 ha | Miller et al. (2012) |
| Indigo snake (Drymarchon corais) | 33 ha and 1,528 ha | Hyslop et al. (2013) |
| Indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi) | 44 ha-76 ha and 156 ha-202 ha for males and females, respectively | Breininger et al. (2011) |
| Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) | 22.5 km2 | Hart et al. (2015) |
Table taken from “Spatial considerations for captive snakes” by Warwick C et al., 2019.
An amateur snake owner may not be capable of building an adequate enclosure that suits all the needs for a snake such as possible basking and hiding spots (Gerald G.W et al., 2006). At the very least, large pet store chains market the snakes as only needing limited space They may then want to move on but are restricted, as many traditional snake setups such as the pet store recommended sized tanks don’t allow for a lot of movement.
Tanks for commonly kept snake species such as corn snakes and ball pythons such as a 20-gallon terrarium only measure 2 feet long by 1 foot. Both species can reach 6 feet long and have been documented to express the need to fully stretch out the entire length of their body. Although PetSmart’s website states you should probably upgrade as the snake grows, many casual owners will unlikely want to continue to buy terrariums.
