When first discovered, Cape Verde was an intact wilderness. Today, just south of one of its cultural hotspots, three uninhabited islands open a rare window into the past – the desert islands.

Every year local NGO Biosfera 1 sets camp in the most remote – the small and arid islet of Razo. Having first arrived to protect an endemic shearwater, its teams have also come to study the wildlife that finds refuge inland, including a unique bird. The deeper researchers delve into the Razo lark’s ecology, the more vulnerable it seems.

Yet the only island that raises hope for it, the nearby Santa Luzia, is dominated by an introduced predator: cats.