Sort of ... (depends on what you mean by "feel" - detects, or is consciously aware of)
I think the way this works is something like this:
1) Our body / brain will detect that we're low on energy and release neurotransmitters indicating this
2) Our body may also provide physical indications of hunger based on empty stomach
3) These hunger-detection (or i-should-eat) signals may directly trigger behavior patterns related to finding food. In a primitive animal or baby this may be direct (baby starts crying, mom provides food), and as a human adult it may include triggering past patterns of food finding (go to the kitchen) when we felt like this before
4) In parallel with 3), the evolutionally newer part of our brain will eventually recognize what's going on, and that we're feeling hungry, and if we haven't already done anything about it then we might make a more deliberate plan to do something about it "i'm hungry, should get some lunch, what will i have .."
So, I think it's a combination of 3) and 4).
I'd guess there are probably also some animals, maybe some humans, that feed instinctively, more or less all the time, and perhaps have more of an "i'm full, off switch" than an "i'm hungry, on switch".
I don't know - this is obviously partly guess work. Certainly if you ask someone in the kitchen grabbing a snack why they are doing it they will provide a post-hoc explanation of "i'm feeling hungry", even if the "decision" to do it was subconscious.
I'm just being honest. Anyone who tells you they know what its like to be a bat, or any other animal, and what drives it's behavior is lying.
"Animals eat when they're hungry" is fine story, and obviously there is a lot of truth to it, but there are also obviously a lot of exceptions too.
Do you really think the Grizzly, preparing to hibernate, who can barely walk because he is so fat, and is eating his 50th salmon of the day, is eating because he is hungry?
What about the baby birds, mouths open when parent returns with food? Hungry, or just instinct?
What about an alligator that can go months without eating. In captivity it will eat every day if food is offered, and get obese (so keepers don't do that). Is it eating when hungry?
What about grazing animals that eat nutritionally poor food, and spend most of their waking hours eating? An elephant eats for 12-18 hours a day. Is it always hungry, or has evolution just given it survival instincts to behave like this?
When the bat leaving it's cave at dusk to go catch insects, is it hungry? What is it like to be a bat?
I think the way this works is something like this:
1) Our body / brain will detect that we're low on energy and release neurotransmitters indicating this
2) Our body may also provide physical indications of hunger based on empty stomach
3) These hunger-detection (or i-should-eat) signals may directly trigger behavior patterns related to finding food. In a primitive animal or baby this may be direct (baby starts crying, mom provides food), and as a human adult it may include triggering past patterns of food finding (go to the kitchen) when we felt like this before
4) In parallel with 3), the evolutionally newer part of our brain will eventually recognize what's going on, and that we're feeling hungry, and if we haven't already done anything about it then we might make a more deliberate plan to do something about it "i'm hungry, should get some lunch, what will i have .."
So, I think it's a combination of 3) and 4).
I'd guess there are probably also some animals, maybe some humans, that feed instinctively, more or less all the time, and perhaps have more of an "i'm full, off switch" than an "i'm hungry, on switch".
I don't know - this is obviously partly guess work. Certainly if you ask someone in the kitchen grabbing a snack why they are doing it they will provide a post-hoc explanation of "i'm feeling hungry", even if the "decision" to do it was subconscious.