'Dirty Dirk', the 70-year-old tortoise, fathers eight babies in one year

A notoriously frisky elderly tortoise dubbed “Dirty Dirk” has amazed zookeepers after fathering eight babies in a calendar year.

Dirk, a 70-year-old giant Galapagos tortoise, lives at Crocodiles Of The World in Oxfordshire and has had four hatchlings with a female called Charlie and four with Isabella.

The hyper-virile reptilian pensioner is named after the noted lothario Dirk Diggler, from the 1997 film Boogie Nights, and is renowned in zoological circles.

He was moved to the Brize Norton sanctuary in 2018 in an attempt to find him a mate as scientists mounted Britain's first ever attempt to breed giant Galapagos tortoises.

In March it was revealed that he fathered two baby tortoises with the 21-year-old Charlie, a watershed moment as it was the first time a British zoo had successfully bred the species.

Dirk then fathered four more offspring via another female in his pen, Isabella, which hatched in July.

Charlie then laid two more eggs fertilised by Dirk which have recently hatched, taking his 2022 tally to eight.

Dirk is thought to weigh more than 31 stone and was captured from his native Galapagos Islands in 1962. He spent time at Rotterdam Zoo before being moved to London Zoo, then Crocodiles of the World.

He is believed to be at least 70 years old and his reputation as a cold-blooded Casanova is legendary, with his seemingly insatiable carnal appetite — even outside of mating season — earning him his nickname from his keepers.

Due to his incessant frolicking and significant bulk it is not uncommon for the females to sport minor battle wounds from their trysts with the Galapagian philanderer.

Despite his advancing years he is said to still be in peak physical condition and may live for several more decades. With seemingly no let up in his lustful habits, there is still hope of him siring more baby tortoises.

“Male Galapagos tortoises can remain fertile throughout their lives, Dirk may even be able to father young for another 50 years!” Mr Gilks said.

Zuzu, the third female in Dirk’s enclosure, is said to be the latest recipient of his advances and may yet provide him with more offspring.

The arrival of the eight babies at Crocodiles of the World is a huge boost to the conservation status of the giant Galapagos tortoise which is an endangered species, with barely 15,000 left in existence, compared to more than 200,000 in the 19th century.

The species is large, slow and not afraid of people due to millennia of isolation away from predation on the Galapagos archipelago off the coast of Ecuador. These traits made them easy targets for the first human settlers to the idyllic islands who hunted the creatures for food.

Shaun Foggett, founder and director at Crocodiles of the World, said: “The first two hatchlings were Charlie's back in March, then we hatched four from Isabella in July, and we've just had another two from Charlie's eggs. There has been nothing from Zuzu yet.

“Dirk doesn't seem to be in need of a rest and remains living with the females.”

All the babies are thought to be female, according to Mr Foggett, and they are being kept separate from the adults to be carefully monitored.

“It is a big deal in that, for a decade or more, just one collection of giant Galapagos tortoises in Europe were able to breed the species,” he added.

“It certainly shows that Dirk is a potentially very important tortoise within European zoos.”

Jamie Gilks, Head of Reptiles at Crocodiles of the World, said: “A male at Zoo Zurich named Jumbo has fathered almost 100 baby tortoises over the past 20 years.

“Behind Jumbo, Dirk may already be the second most successful breeding male within the European studbook."

Zurich Zoo spearheads the conservation of giant Galapagos tortoises in Europe, which includes more than 100 animals at 26 different institutions.

Due to difficulties in getting the animals to mate in captivity, and incubating the eggs correctly, only Zurich Zoo itself has managed reproduction success.

“The biggest boost right now is the fact that the knowledge we are able to gain and share from the incubation of the eggs to the raising of the young,” Mr Foggett said.

“This will provide more experience and knowledge on the whole process of breeding the species in a zoo setting.”

Giant Galapagos tortoises are the largest tortoise species in the world and can grow up to 6ft in length and 900lbs (64 stone, or 400 kilos) in weight.

They mate all year round and the male is known to make loud grunting noises when doing so.