WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration today over its delay in complying with a public records request seeking information about funding cuts to international wildlife conservation programs.

In February Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency froze grant funding administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for anti-poaching patrols and other conservation projects that protect elephants, rhinos and other endangered wildlife outside the United States. The Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking details on the cuts and any potential justification for them, but has not received any response.

“With zero notice or transparency, the Trump administration yanked critical wildlife funds around the globe, shuttering poaching patrols and research projects and putting rare animals at grave risk,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international director at the Center. “American children are put to bed at night with stories of iconic animals like giraffes, rhinos and elephants, and many people dream of seeing them in the wild one day. These incredible creatures might eventually exist only in books unless we fight for them, so it’s doubly cruel for the Trump administration to hide public records about this devastating funding cut.”

The funds support animals protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, providing services like anti-poaching patrols for rhinos, scientific research on elephant declines, and fighting trafficking in imperiled turtles in countries that lack protection resources.

The abrupt funding halt is already disrupting programs around the world, including patrols to protect orangutans, elephants and rhinos in Indonesia and to prevent rhino poaching in Zimbabwe. The cuts are also keeping an endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle from coming home to the Gulf of Mexico, after accidentally washing up in Wales stunned by the cold water.

Despite Musk’s promises of “maximum transparency” on DOGE activities, the Trump administration appears instead to be slow-walking FOIA requests and undermining the public’s ability to know what its government is doing, a tactic also employed during the first Trump administration.

The case, filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, seeks immediate release of the records.