At 54-years-old Bugsy has a dozen newborns to cope with.

The tuatara is the father of 12 newly hatched babies at Rotorua's Rainbow springs.

The native reptiles are rarely bred in captivity and the latest hatching follows close on the heels of the park's first hatch of tuatara eggs 14 months ago.

The latest arrivals hatched after a 222 day incubation period - housed safely in a cozy ice-cream container.

Mark Paterson, Wildlife & Presentations Manager said an x-ray had confirmed 26-year-old mum Fafa was expecting.

"When she laid the eggs I then carefully transferred them into a climate controlled enclosure, carefully monitoring and weighing the eggs every week to ensure they were gaining weight and developing."

The first tuatara emerged on June 6 and the final 12th one on 18 June.

They range in weight between 4.1 - 5.8 grams.

The baby tuatara will stay in isolation for the next few weeks gaining strength before moving out into a bigger enclosure, and Rainbow Springs staff say they are off to a great start displaying healthy eating and hunting instincts, feeding on a staple diet of flies, larvae and locusts.

The public will have a chance for their first lookaround Christmas time.

While the sex of the new arrivals hasn't yet been determined, as with other reptiles the warmer the soil around the eggs, the greater the chance they will be males and the cooler the soil, the greater the chance they will be females.

Tuatara are the only surviving members of the genus Sphenodon, a species that existed alongside the dinosaurs and is more than 200 million years old. In ideal conditions they can live for up to 300 years.

- © Fairfax NZ News