Death fights and missing cats

Question
My cat has been missing for 5 days now.
I wasn't worried for the first 3 since I have had several cats stay out for two or three nights in a row and return 3 or 4 days later.
My cat was very weary of strange humans so I find it unlikely he was kidnapped , he even fought and bit me if he didn't feel like being picked up so the likelyhood of him being taken by a stranger for whatever purpose seems unlikely (though not impossible).
Becoming a road fatality seems the most likely.
But to the question.
Something I think is relevent for you too know in answering this question is he is an undoctored 10 month old male.
1 what are the most usual reasons for cats suddenly disappearing?

2 what is the longest cats are known to stay away for without returning then to suddenly return.
3. How do cats become feral can they simply chose one day to become feral in the same way a wild Animal will suddenly decide to leave the family prde so to speak. (this cat was always very keen and insistent on going outside)
4 the reason for the question title, I have heard that sometimes undoctored males will sometimes fight to the death for territory or mating rights , is this true ? and if yes how common are such fights?
5 . how likely is it that if my cat caught a rat or mouse that had eaten posion bait, that my Cat would die from this and could have wandered of and  hidden under a bush or something and died from the posion?
6 how commonly are cats killed by wandering Dogs ect? or foxes? I know that cases of foxes attacking cats are rare or even unknown but what if the cat started the  fight would a fox kill the cat under that circumstance?

Answer
Mark,

I can answer your questions, maybe not as thoroughly as you would like.  Before I try to answer your questions, I have a bias towards keeping cats inside all the time.  Statistics tend to put the life span of inside cats at 12-15 years, whereas out of doors cats may live for an average of 3-5 years.  Having said that here is my attempt at your questions:

1.  Larger predators, automobiles, and other people are the 3 biggest causes of cats disappearance.  On the latter, sometimes people take a stray kitty in and (try to) convert it to an indoor cat, on the other hand there are those misguided people who take a delight in killing cats, and finally, there are labs who make the rounds to attract and abduct what they perceive as feral cats for there research purposes.

2.  I have no good data for this one.  I have heard of time spans lasting months to years, all anecdotal, few are verifiable.

3.  When we refer to a feral cat, it is usually a stray that has been born to the wild.  When cats become abandoned, they sometimes will turn feral.  However, most cats turned outside with no home to return to do not survive in the wild.  Having a territory with a home for feeding and sleeping as a base does not prepare most cats for the deadly rigors of survival in the wild.

4.  We raise all our whole males together and they have been known to make lots of noise and do lots of posturing and, occasionally loosen up some fur.  However, virtually always, one of the males will back down and find an easier territory to roam.  I have heard rare reports of cats fighting to ther death and those have involved females or male/female confrontations (many with the male getting the brunt of the attack).

5.  This is a very, very unlikely scenario, but within the realm of possibility.

6.  As I said in answer to number 1, one of the biggest problems cats have are with larger predators. If the cat has all its teeth and claws and chooses to face a single canine, the cat can do quite a bit of damage, perhaps enough to gain some time for a successful escape.  In the case of a pack of dogs, most cats would be at a major disadvantage although there are anecdotal stories about a cat routing an entire pack of gogs (again unverifiable). A large, savvy cat might be more than a match for a fox.  On the other hand, if the cat chooses flight over fight, the dog or fox could easily win the day if they can catch the cat.

All in all, I hope you get your cat back and I hope you neuter it immediately.  Unneutered cats will tend to wander pretty far afield and could get themselves into some pretty nasty situations.  As I said in the beginning, I am in favor of keeping cats indoors!!!!!

Good luck in finding your cat and best regards... Norm.