If a person ate just wild rabbits/hare/ and nothing else they would starve to death.

Maine does have rabbits but they're endangered. New England cottontails. They inhabit the southern coastal area and number around 300. I've seen them a few times.

I did an internship in Warren and Potter counties in the summer of 1984 for Hammermill Paper. We were working on the 5 strand electric fences to keep deer out of new clearcuts. We also conducted radio telemetry of does to see if deer migrated into the new clearcuts or the resident deer caused regeneration issues. At this time, Potter county was the leading county in PA for deer harvests. One day, we had lunch with a young man from Penn State who wanted to do his thesis on paper company lands. He was trying to prove that snowshoe populations were affected by the regeneration problems caused by deer. The meeting was conducted at the end of my internship, and I have no idea if the young man even conducted his study.
Presently, we have a small population in the NEPA. Some winters I see a few. Some winters I don’t see them. I see people hunting them during the fisher season when I trapping. I have even seen some harvested, as I like to work with the guys who run dogs. This past winter I saw a couple.
As far as I know, PA is the southern most habitat for snowshoes. We certainly have plenty of predators. It’s a tough life for them here.

Coincidentally, I am a member of a hunting club in Potter County that leases about 3500 acres from a timber company. Back when I first got my Camp in 2000 the land was owned by Hammermill Paper. The property has changed hands multiple times since then.

One thing all the owners have had in common is that they require us to kill a certain number of doe each season. Some of them even went as far as having us remove a lower jaw and list the weight of the doe we killed. They wanted to see deer that were big and healthy for their age. That told them that the population was low enough to not be decimating their valuable timber before it had a chance to grow.

that book was written by Ned Smith a well known wild life artist

There are some in the higher elevation areas of WV and VA.

I grew up in Cameron County PA. We hunted Snowshoe Rabbits in the North Creek area. Couldn't tell you anything about it now.

where I live now, the Tug Hill area of NY, we have plenty on Snowshoes.

I saw my first and only Snowshoe near Tidioute, Pa about 8 years ago hunting squirrels.

Spent a bunch of time around one
those solar deer fences at Nebraska Bridge.
A real eye opener to deer damage.

good read , thanks guys

Because I deer hunted i W VA both bow and rifle season from 1987 thru 2005 plus a few other random years This thread made me wonder f they still have a season on varying hare in W V And the regs list an open season And than because much of W VA and VA share the same mountain range and has a lot of similar habitat I looked at the VA DNR season regs VA also shows a season on varying hare Maybe a dedicated Varying hare hunter might try to take one in each state that has a part of the Appalachian trail in that mountain range A catchy name could put varying hare hunting back in fashion again You know like the Triple Trophy in PA or the grand slam of sheep .