Reply #13: For a certainty when the bears were wearing them

[DifferentStrokes]

Otherwise, they're strictly for dress and parade.

Found an interesting history, tracing the origins back to Waterloo.

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:BbLdd2CXxeUJ:www.news-star.com/stories/081497/world2.html+bearskin+palace+guards&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Five elite infantry regiments -- the Coldstream, Scots, Welsh, Irish and Grenadiers guards -- sport the tall bearskin hats. The distinctive hats were adopted to commemorate Britain's 1815 victory over Napoleon's forces at Waterloo, where France's elite troops, the Imperial Guard, had worn bearskins to appear more intimidating.

--much more including efforts to replace the skins with synthetic fabric to appease PETA. Results have been uniformly horrid (pun intended because this is a funny story).

:-)