How come there are no black cheetahs?

[u/Green_Tox]

There are black lion, jaguars,tigers, leopards hell even black snow leaopards but there are no black cheetahs? What causes all these other felines to have the mutation that the cheetah lacks? There have been reports around 1920-1940 but based on the description it just seemed like a king cheetah which just has bigger black spots and a black stripes on the back and sides. There was even a search for one in 2020 that had no results.So why is a melanistic cheetah so rare.

[u/Moratiswatching69]

Actually there are no melanistic lions because lions and cheetahs are day hunters meaning they’d need to blend in with their surroundings such as long grass, on the other hand jaguars can fit into their surroundings with both a normal pattern and a melanistic pattern considering they’re night hunters. It’s just evolutionary reasons