It does push the population past what's called for in the state's management plan, but Sawyer says the foal will not be removed.

"It gives us 6 1/2 horses right now," he says.

After this one grows, and the oldest dies, "It's still one too many for the management plan, but we're not going to take it off the island," he goes on. "What are you going to do? When the older one dies we'll still have one extra horse, but that's within a reasonable number of the desired population."

It helps that this is a filly.

"If it had been a male we would have had to try to geld it in order to keep it on the island," Sawyer says. "Being a mare will not be a big issues, because the two males out there are geldings."

So it should be the last horse ever born on Wildhorse, too.

"What's really unique is this is the start of a whole new episode," Gordon says. "This horse could be out here for 25 years or more, if it lives as long as they normally do.

"It really is Wildhorse Island now."

Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.

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