A coat-wearing monkey has become an internet celebrity - and triggered an animal welfare investigation - after being found wandering in a Canadian furniture store car park.

The months-old rhesus macaque, named Darwin, spent the night at an animal shelter in Toronto after he was found wandering around an IKEA parking lot wearing a sheepskin coat on Sunday afternoon.

Darwin apparently opened his crate and the door of his owner's vehicle and went for a stroll. His adventure, however, did not stop there.

Snap-happy Canadians took photographs and videos and Darwin immediately became a viral sensation on social media.

His image was pasted into mock-ups of the IKEA catalogue, atop Toronto's CN Tower, in Canada's parliament seated next to the prime minister, and elsewhere.

Outside Canada's parliament, opposition MP Chris Charlton evoked the monkey in swipes at the government: "Conservatives are as lost as a monkey in an IKEA. Though at least the monkey was wearing a coat to cover his shame."

But animal welfare authorities were less amused.

Mary Lou Leiher of Toronto's Animal Services said: "He's not very happy right now. He's comfortable, but he's having a bad day."

Canada is no place for a rhesus macaque, she told a press conference.

"It's a very exotic choice for a pet," she said.

"Common sense would say, 'Get a dog.'"

Darwin's owners have reportedly been slapped with a $230 fine for owning a prohibited exotic pet, and Animal Services is now looking for a new home for Darwin at an animal sanctuary.

AFP