First, if it is a recessive trait, it will be very difficult for natural selection to completely eliminate it. It could persist in heterozygotes for a very, very long time. The cheetah population is quite small, which makes this somewhat less likely, but we cannot simply assume that because it's still around, it's not deleterious.
Similarly, the 1920s was not very long ago. A hundred years is, what, a couple dozen cheetah generations at most? That's not very much time for selection to have had any effect. The only way to really determine what natural selection is doing is to empirically measure the reproductive success of mutant cheetahs vs normal cheetahs. Or measure allele frequency over many generations. We can't draw any conclusions without more research. I have no idea if such research has been done.
There are 3 possibilities. 1. advantageous, 2. deleterious, and 3. selectively neutral.
This mutation is rare, and it is a recessive trait, meaning both parents have to have the gene for the pattern to appear. If the trait is deleterious, then it will be eliminated by natural selection. Since the trait has been known since at least the 1920s, it is probably not deleterious. If it is advantageous, it should increase in frequency over time. That does not appear to be the case as it remains a rare trait. Most likely is that it is selectively neutral, meaning there is no difference in fitness between the normal spotted coloration and the king cheetah. Alternatively it may provide a slight advantage in the wild, but hunters/poachers may concentrate on king cheetahs because of their distinctive pattern, so it is unable to increase in frequency because it is hunted more intensely than the normal color pattern. For that reason, it has remained rare despite the possibility that it provides an advantage.
I could see that being an advantage when stalking. Spots move more than stripes when it is stalking towards the gazelle or similar animal. Also the prey are likely used to seeing regular cheetahs so a variation like that might fool some of them.
I don't think it will be of some advantage
Yes.
anything that works to camouflage it from its prey would work.
So I was reading up about cheetahs when I stumbled upon something called the "king cheetah". Apparently it has a mutation caused by a recessive gene, resulting in it having blotches and stripes rather than the spots that you would find on a normal cheetah.
I got to wondering, would this mutation provide it with any sort of advantage over the normal cheetahs, in terms of it's ability to survive and hunt?
For those of you who don't know what king cheetahs are:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/King_cheetah.jpg
http://www.personal.psu.edu/afr3/blogs/siowfa12/cheetah%20blog.jpg
