It is not absurd. It depends on the type of beings at play. Plants don't kill each other, but animals do on a daily basis, from whales to mosquitoes, they're all part of a macabre annihilation dance where strength, intelligence and mimetism play important roles.

Through different eras, men have traveled long distances to kill, subjugate, enslave other people, and to consume everything that can be consumed, we won't change if we start going to the outer space. Being the most advanced species on earth doesn't make us different, as spiders, fish, birds, wolves, anything that moves is determined to kill or be killed, so it's not only a human trait.

Is it a dark forest? We don't know, it may just be an open battleground where intelligence is the final conqueror and that's exactly what rides on top of the arrow of evolution.