If you give enough typewriters to enough monkeys, the theory goes, they should eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare.
If you leave your camera unattended in a troop of macaques, you’re more likely to get some very toothy self-portraits.
That’s what happened to the award-winning snapper David Slater, who left his equipment unmanned on a trip to Indonesia during a trip to photograph the endangered crested black macque.
A monkey soon went to investigate and became fascinated by its own image in the lens.
“One of them must have accidentally knocked the camera and set it off because the sound caused a bit of a frenzy,” Slater, 46, said.
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“At first there was a lot of grimacing with their teeth showing because it was probably the first time they had ever seen a reflection. They were quite mischievous jumping all over my equipment, and it looked like they were already posing for the camera when one hit the button.
“The sound got his attention and he kept pressing it. At first it scared the rest of them away but they soon came back - it was amazing to watch. He must have taken hundreds of pictures by the time I got my camera back, but not very many were in focus. He obviously hadn’t worked that out yet.
“I wish I could have stayed longer as he probably would have taken a full family album.”
Slater, from Coleford, Gloucestershire, was on a trip to a small national park north of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi when he met the monkeys.
He said: “I teamed up with a local guide because I knew about the apes and wanted to photograph them. I walked with them for about three days in a row. They befriended us and showed absolutely no aggression - they were just interested in the things I was carrying.
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“They aren’t known for being particularly clever like chimps, just inquisitive. Despite probably never having any contact with humans before they didn’t feel threatened by our presence, and that’s why I could walk with them during the day.”