Earlier reports indicated that arterial hypoxia not only dilated intestinal resistance vessels but also increased capillary filtration coefficients. The latter finding was interpreted as reflecting an increased number of perfused capillaries. Because both increased blood flow and increased capillary density would tend to maintain tissue oxygenation in spite of arterial hypoxia, the main purpose of this paper was to determine how effectively intestinal O2 utilization is maintained during arterial hypoxia. Therefore, I perfused isolated loops of canine small bowel at constant arterial pressure. Under this condition, reducing arterial PO2 to a mean value of 46 +/- 2.4 mmHg caused blood flow to increase to 146% of control, and O2 consumption was kept within 26% of control. In gut loops perfused at constant blood flow, arterial hypoxia depressed O2 uptake still further, but measurements of 86Rb extraction confirmed that the density of the perfused capillary bed increased. Thus, the responses of both resistance and exchange vessels tend to maintain O2 delivery to intestinal tissue during arterial hypoxia.