Nice effort under somewhat difficult lighting conditions.
Two thoughts for you on this image, Arnold:
1. Why B&W? How does this improve the scene, especially for a shot of an animal, where the colour is such an important aspect of the animal?
2. Why such muddy tones? I suggest you look at your black point and white point settings to increase the contrast. In general in a strong B&W image, you need a full tonal range that runs from pure black to pure white.
To your first question: I actually photogave very few animals in black and white,so it was more of an attempt.
To your second question: Thank you for your explanation, I am often careful to use more contrasts in black and white photos, they are often too contrasted in my opinion.
A very nice capture, but I agree with Manfred: it lacks pop because of the limited tonal range. I have the same reaction to the color version. For similar reasons, it doesn't have much separation from the background.
Here is a very quick edit with three changes:
1. I raised the black point.
2. I added midtone contrast
3. I burned some parts of the background, especially the bright rock at the bottom, so that bright areas in the background would be less of a distraction.
See what you think.