My experience was from when I lived in Alaska. Cook them in brown and serve oven bags. it keep the moisture in so the meat doesn't get dry. If they are around hunting them was never a problem. They do have a have a life cycle. Started with shotguns and that got too easy, went to 22 rifles, then pistols and on to pellet guns. A buddy of mine was using a sling shot with marbles for ammo, but he could as they say "spot a snowshoe in a snowstorm." As stated above look for the eye and the shape, a different pile of snow usually along the edges of openings sunning. First you would see a different pile of snow, then you would notice an eye and the rest would appear. When the cycle was up they were every where. It wasn't anything to shoot 10 to 20 of them hunting with friends. Good thing they are easy to skin Even made rabbit jerky.
Every now and then it would get cold before the snows came. Now that was some easy hunting white snowshoes on a brown back ground. Oh, safety note look out for toulrimina or something like that "White spots on the livers" comes up every now and then. Those "they" say you can still eat the meat if thoroughly cooked. Unless it was a survival situation, I would pass and just go shoot another one. Good times even in the low cycles you could pick up two or three.