Some more cheeky monkeys in Jigokudani Monkey Park, Nagano prefecture.

For some added fun here is a bit of monkey based photography news…

Photographer David Slater (see his website here) had an amazing experience whilst taking pictures of crested black macaque monkeys. Living up to their cheeky stereotype, a monkey snatched one of his cameras and went on a selfie tirade, taking hundreds of pictures as it padded about the jungle. The photos were mostly a bit of a mess – burred, poor composition, terrible choice of settings – what an amateur. However, the monkey did luck upon a couple perfect self portrait (pictured below).

When the picture was published it went viral – it was all over the internet. There were even rumours that Rolling Stone had offered the monkey a contract to shoot its next cover (not really). Basically, everyone loves a monkey based story! The photo even found its way onto Wikipedia – as part of their collection of some 22,302,592 royalty free images.

This is when the monkey started to cause even more mischief. David complained to Wikipedia that the image belonged to him and it being available on the website, royalty free, was a copyright infringement. Wikipedia disagreed with this however, stating that since the monkey pressed the shutter button it should own the copyright.

The argument as it stands is in legal limbo – some siding with David and others with Wikipedia. I will say however, that following Wikipedia’s logic (that the monkey owns the image copyright) they are still using an image without the owners permission, or appropriate compensation. I think they should provide the monkey with at least a couple of crates of bananas for his handy work.

The other monkey moments so far –