An aardvark at the Cincinnati Zoo is sharing his mother’s milk—but not with another aardvark. The milk is going to scientists in Washington, D.C.!

Winsol the aardvark was born in December. No other healthy aardvark has been born at the zoo in more than 20 years. Winsol drinks milk from her mom, Ali. Zoo staffers draw milk samples from Ali every Friday. They send some of it to Smithsonian’s Exotic Animal Milk Repository. Then scientists use the milk for an important project: making a milk substitute for baby animals.

Researchers analyze the milk. As a baby grows, its nutritional needs change. God made each mother’s milk to change as her baby does. The researchers take note of these changes from week to week. They try to copy the formula God designed. They want to be better able to keep baby animals alive when they cannot feed from their mothers.

The zoo has already collected milk samples from gorillas and hippos. That research will help zoos all over the world. And man-made milk for baby animals has already helped at the Cincinnati Zoo. Workers used it to feed Fiona the baby hippo. Fiona was born in January. She weighed 29 pounds. That’s huge compared to an ordinary human newborn. But baby hippos normally weigh between 55 and 120 pounds at birth. Tiny Fiona could not stand and feed from her mother Bibi. The milk substitute Fiona drank was designed just for her. With its help, Fiona thrived.

The milk repository has 15,000 samples so far. Those came from 185 species. But the repository hasn’t received aardvark milk since 1992. Captive aardvarks are rare. And milking one is tricky business! Once baby Winsol begins to feed, zookeeper Danielle Holste quickly milks Ali. But she must be very careful. She doesn’t want to disturb the hungry youngster.