The Hyena

I once read something about Wildlife images being in colour, and just not working properly in B&W.  No matter how hard I have tried to understand the reasoning behind this, I just can't.
Sure, you can get some great impact with the colours of the animals, such as Tropical birds, or the great colours of the Baboons, and even the way the Lions blend in with the grasses upon their hunt.  But to say that they won't work in B&W just doesn't sit well with me.
So to prove a point, I took an image of a Hyena, which was shot in full Colour on Fuji Reala 100 film, and decided to change the image to a B&W LITH type of image.

To the left is the image I took, in full detailed B&W toned in Photoshop CS5 and using Exposure 4 to get the Kodalith layer. 
I really enjoyed how it brought out so much more contrast to the image.  This, in fact, worked out quite well.

Perhaps I am interpreting the phrasing incorrectly about B&W not working with Wild-life, as I see many B&W Wildlife images, and some are just brilliant.  Perhaps it's more about tradition, and that with animals, colour is just the more accepted.

I guess, like many, I just can't stand to be part of an old tradition, and if B&W didn't work with wildlife, what about old National Geographic magazines?  I have a horde of those from the early 1900's and the photos are almost entirely in B&W.