Black and white images were my preferred medium for many years.  I started out using film and processing my own negatives and prints in the darkroom.  Black and white has a different “feel” than color and in certain instances it can convey the scene better than with color.

From my early B&W film days which also involved zoo trips with my boys, this is scanned from a negative.  It’s a rhinoceros taking a dip in his pool.

Here is a flamingo where the obvious bright colors are replaced with gray tones to bring out some of the texture.  Again, a negative scan.

In my opinion, B&W photography can bring out a mood in a scene in a way that color is not able to.  Think of a dank, dreary day.  Chances are the vision that formed in your mind was not of color but of a cloudy, gray day (i.e. little or no color).  That’s just one way B&W is superior in setting moods than color, but remember, it depends on what kind of mood you’re trying to convey.  Another example of mood is this alley at night in Durango, Colorado: