“The photographer could reasonably claim that he paid the monkey a banana, and that the monkey’s acceptance of the banana relinquished any claim that the monkey had to the copyright of the photo.
The monkey would have to get its own copyright lawyer to put forward an opposing viewpoint.”
Too late for that, the photographer already shot himself in the foot by admitting that he didn’t do anything like that, and the photograph was an accident he didn’t intend to happen.
The photographer clearly misspoke.