COLEFORD wildlife photographer David Slater has won an bizarre United States court case against a crested macaque monkey which took a ‘selfie’ on his camera.

The ‘monkey business’ legal wrangle erupted after Mr Slater published a book called ‘Wildlife Personalities’ that includes the ‘monkey selfie’ pictures.

Mr Slater claimed he had the legal rights to the photographs.

He maintained the British copyright obtained for the photographs by his company, Wildlife Personalities Ltd., should be honoured worldwide and asked the court to dismiss the case.

But he was sued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who sought a court order in an attempt to represent the monkey.

They claimed that copyright for the photograph belonged to Naruto, a six-year-old crested macaques on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

However US District Judge William Orrick, presiding over a federal court in San Francisco, last week ruled that the monkey was barking up the wrong tree.

He said: “While Congress and the President can extend the protection of law to animals as well as humans, there is no indication that they did so in the Copyright Act.”

However David is not out of the legal jungle yet as the photos have been widely distributed elsewhere by outlets, including Wikipedia.