MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials on Wednesday presented the first litter of Mexican gray wolf pups conceived in the country by artificial insemination, part of an effort to save one of the hemisphere’s most endangered animals.

Authorities are trying to reintroduce the wolf in its natural range, after it was hunted to extinction in the wild in Mexico three decades ago.

Conservation projects in the United States, where some wolves survived in captivity, provided the genetic material for the effort, but the mother of the litter presented Wednesday could not conceive by natural means because of physical problems.

In July, Mexico announced the birth of the first known litter of wild-born Mexican pups from a pair of wolves reintroduced in the wild, a project that began in 2011.

The last five survivors in the U.S. were captured between 1977 and 1980, and then bred in captivity. The first wolves were reintroduced into the wild in the Southwest starting in 1998, mainly in Arizona and New Mexico.

The Mexican gray wolf remains an endangered species in the United States and Mexico.