MEDORA, N.D. (AP) — The National Park Service has killed about two dozen antlerless elk in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the past few weeks to help keep the population at a manageable level.

The western North Dakota park is in the maintenance phase of an elk management plan that included large reduction efforts in 2010 and 2011. The herd had grown to more than 1,200 animals, too many for the park to sustain, so park staff and volunteer shooters killed nearly 870 of the animals.