Rate My Professor Paul Stapp

Paul Stapp is a Professor of Biological Science at California State University, Fullerton, where he joined the Biology department in 2002. He currently serves as Faculty Director of the CSU Desert Studies Center, effective Fall 2024, and Director of the California Desert Studies Consortium. A native of northern California, Stapp holds a BS in Zoology from the University of California, Davis, an MS in Wildlife from the University of New Hampshire, and a PhD in Zoology with a focus on Ecological Studies from Colorado State University. Prior to CSUF, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Wyoming and UC Davis, and held a lecturer position at the University of York in the United Kingdom. At CSUF, he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in ecology, conservation biology, mammalogy, vertebrate zoology, wildlife biology, and research design. Since 2006, he has advised the biology graduate program, chaired institutional committees on animal care and graduate education, and mentored 23 undergraduate and 32 graduate students, many of whom have pursued careers as ecologists and biologists.

Stapp's research centers on wildlife ecology, examining behavioral, population, and community ecology of mammals in arid and semi-arid ecosystems, including the impacts of bubonic plague on prairie dogs, anticoagulant rodenticide exposure in urban coyotes and non-target species, invasive species dynamics, urban ecology, and anthropogenic influences such as light pollution, roads, and pest management on wildlife. He has obtained nearly $2 million in external grants and contracts, authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications with more than 140 conference presentations, and served as publications director for the American Society of Mammalogists' journals. Notable publications include "Behavior and activity of commensal roof rats around rodenticide bait stations in southern California, USA" (Bosarge, Stapp & Quinn, 2025, Applied Animal Behaviour Science), "Patterns of exposure of coyotes to anticoagulant rodenticides in California, USA" (Stapp et al., 2024, Journal of Wildlife Management), and "Declines in rodent abundance and diversity track regional climate variability in North American drylands" (Cárdenas et al., 2021, Global Change Biology). Stapp received Cal State Fullerton’s 2024 Outstanding Professor Award for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service, and the American Society of Mammalogists’ President’s Special Award for Service.