By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Officials on Wednesday presented the first litter of Mexican gray wolves conceived in the country by artificial insemination, part of an effort to save one of the hemisphere’s most endangered animals. The director of the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, Juan Antonio Rivera, said the two pups were born on May 26. The mother could not conceive naturally, but conservation projects in the United States provided the genetic material. In July, Mexico announced the birth of the first known litter of wild-born Mexican wolves from a pair reintroduced in the wild. The last five survivors in the United States were captured between 1977 and 1980, and then bred. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service said in January that there were at least 83 of the endangered wolves in Arizona and New Mexico.