One of the more interesting loads covered by Forkliftaction News - Bei Bei the giant panda. (Picture shown for illustration purpose only.)

Our editor once said of Forkliftaction: 'if it moves materials, we cover it'. Well sometimes, these 'materials' are live animals.

In 2019, we covered the story of four-year-old giant panda Bei Bei's most excellent adventure to Chengdu, China.

The trip began when the staff at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington used a forklift to transport Bei Bei to a truck headed for Dulles International Airport.

After presumably shopping for some bargains at Duty Free, Bei Bei was escorted onto the FedEx Panda Express, to a specially 'decaled' Boeing 777F.

During Bei Bei's 16-hour non-stop journey from DC to China, he enjoyed an in-flight movie or two and a light meal that included a large stash of bamboo, apples and pears, two bags of leafeater biscuits, some cooked sweet potatoes and lots of water.

Has your forklift ever been used to move live cargo? Perhaps you have been responsible for shifting a particularly unusual or extra precious load? Forklift Diaries would love to hear about it SEND US A PHOTO OR TWO AND TELL US ABOUT IT

Some interesting facts about Pandas: Pandas eat around 26 to 84 pounds of bamboo every day. A newborn panda cub weighs just 90-130g, that's about 1/900th the size of its mother. The scientific name for a panda is Ailuropoda Melanoleuca.

If you are interested in reading more interesting stories like the one about Bai Bei you can search the history of materials handling in Forkliftaction's News Archive.