Would love to read Diane Fossey and perchance learn more about gorillas. But am curious on the word you used- 'plot'. Plot, as in, device ways on how to kill an enemy? Was there ever an instant that Silverbacks used a weapon to kill? I already stated my take about murder- that it has to have that element of premeditation for it to qualify as such. Killing yes, but murder? Humans are excused from the crime of murder if they are proven to be 'insane' in that moment. Hence, murder would constitute a thought or a plot, and an act by a fully conscious and rational human for it to be considered murder, right? Killing is not always murder, or, immoral. Killing by self-defense is not immoral. But murder is always killing, right? And it's always immoral by any standards.

But when you say that alpha male gorillas "plot and commit murder", what 'motivates' them to do it if not by pure instinct? What could be that factor beyond instinct? Intimidate you said. Killing his apparent threat to his position is simply acting out his survival instinct. Murder in the moral sense, however flimsy it may be, has malice in it. Are animals capable of this concept: Killing with malice? But intimidation is instinct too. Where is morality?