Environmental investigators in Richmond County are cracking down on illegal deer poaching, starting with one man who they nabbed in November garbed in camo gear and baiting deer with a pile of corn, they said. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

STATEN ISLAND — A deer hunter suspected of beheading a buck on Staten Island has become the first person ever arrested for poaching in the city, officials said.

David Oakes, a 48-year-old who lives in the borough, is set to appear in Staten Island Criminal Court Friday on charges of illegal deer taking, hunting with bait, hunting without a license and failure to tag, investigators from the state Department of Environmental Conservation said.

He was caught red-handed in November dressed in camouflage gear, carrying a bow and arrow and baiting deer with a pile of corn, the department said.

Investigators had been tracking him since he was suspected of hunting and beheading a deer in 2013, they said.

In November, he was found stalking the woods near Schmul Park Playground.

The Staten Island Advance was the first to report the arrest.

“Yeah, I took the eight-point buck last year from the same spot and from a bait pile,” Oakes told investigators in November, according to a summons against him.

While hunting deer is illegal across the five boroughs, Oakes also flaunted state laws that strictly prohibit baiting deer, investigators said.

In the last two years about two dozen mutilated deer corpses have been found scattered all over Staten Island, often beheaded or with their antlers removed, investigators said.

The rise in poaching coincides with an astounding 3,204 percent leap in the island's deer population over the past six years.

"Anything that might endanger our fellow New Yorkers, such as someone hunting with a bow and arrow in the proximity of a school... we're obviously going to enforce on that very, very rigorously," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at an unrelated press conference Thursday.

Edward Piwko, who is in charge of wildlife investigations at DEC, asked island residents to be on the alert for illegal poachers.

“People wearing camouflage type clothing in the woods, anyone with archery equipment, tree stands or people placing tree stands, trail cameras, large piles of corn or bait,” are sure signs of poachers, Piwko said in a Facebook post.

He said the department has several other open investigations into deer poachers on the island.

“[We're] basically spearheading what I hope [will] become a many more cases in the future,” he said. “I’m glad the news is finally getting out. We’re on the island and [poachers] will be caught and prosecuted.”

Oakes could not be reached for immediate comment.